Lilo and Kirby
by Vampire Tails
Summary: Orphaned by a car accident, Lilo and Nani have been put through many hardships. So as solace, Lilo often disappears into her own little world. All she ever wants is a friend. But when a strange creature in the form of a pink puffball crashes on Hawaii...
1. Cast

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Lilo or Kirby. Lilo and her respective characters belong to Disney; Kirby and his respective characters belong to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.

**Lilo and Kirby**

Cast

Lilo Pelekai

Kirby as Stitch

Nani Pelekai

Dr. Dedede (Day-day-day) as Dr. Jumba Jookiba

Agent Escargon as Agent Wendy Pleakly

David Kawena

Mertle Edmonds and her posse, Yuki, Elena, and Teresa

Customer Service (Captain Servick) as Captain Gantu

Moses Puloki

Cobra Bubbles

Elvis

**Auther Notes: **I was going to put Meta Knight as Gantu, but then I decided I didn't want him as a bad guy, even if he is seemingly perfect for the role. Don't worry; I'll squeeze him in somewhere. Hope you enjoy the upcoming chapter.


	2. Prologue

**First, let's get a few things out of the way before we start. "(...)" means that the speaker is thinking, an italicised sentence or words encased in quotation marks means that the speaker is whispering, "[...]" is the translation of whatever the speaker said, italics and bold used together is for emphasis, and italics by themselves mean that people are singing.**

**Disclaimer (can't forget about this!): I don't own the Lilo franchise or the Kirby franchise. Lilo and her respective characters belong to Disney, and Kirby and his respective characters belong to HAL Laboratory and Nintendo.**

**And now, for the prologue you've all been waiting for. Let's get this show on the road!**

* * *

><p><strong>Lilo and Kirby: The Movie<strong>

Prologue

A large blue penguin stood upon a floating hovercraft which shackled his legs, and his brown-gloved hands were chained together. He wore a red lab-coat, a white undershirt, black boots, and a red hat with a golden jewel embedded in it. He was glaring with angry sapphires at one of the guards while waiting for the door to the Grand Councilwoman to open so that he may rest his case. After some more waiting, the door finally opened and the hovercraft brought him, much to his chagrin, to the faces of many other Cappies.

The Grand Councilwoman, who wore a white dress that accentuated her yellow skin, ruby stud earrings, had reddish-purple eyes and heavily curly yellow hair, sat upon a blue throne.

"Ah, Dr. Dedede," one of her associates began, "once the pride of the Cappy race, now reduced to a criminal. I never thought I'd see it happen."

An uproar started up, and all the Cappies stated their mutual feelings.

"(Criminal? !)" her associate was right, Dedede knew, but he still took offense to this; "criminal" was a word he'd never use to describe himself.

His statement left him steaming, but the penguin said nothing, for fear of digging a deeper hole, and simply hung his head to hide his blush of anger; he bet all the Cappies in the audience took this as a sign of shame.

"Enough," the Grand Councilwoman spoke up; finally, he thought, the fact that he was chained up was enough humiliation, "let's get to the reason we are **_all_** here. You," she pointed to Dr. Dedede, "are here for illegally crafting and harboring experiments, am I correct?"

The penguin nodded without hesitation, "(What was the use of lying?)"

"He admits it!" another uproar, "He actually admitted it!"

The Councilwoman lifted a hand to silence the crowd, still keeping a straight face.

"Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

Just then, one of the guards, dressed in white, came up and whispered something in her ear, and they then had a quiet conversation. Dr. Dedede tried to lean in to hear whatever they were talking about, but it was all in vain.

When they finished, the guard stepped away, and she called, "Bring in the captured experiment."

The penguin was slightly shocked, and the hovercraft turned around to allow him to see the door open, revealing his creation on a hovercraft similar to his, only a force-field prevented him from getting away. The crowd stared at his creation, as the hovercraft carried it next to Dr. Dedede.

It was an eight inch tall pink puffball with flaps for arms, permanent light red blushes, and red shoe-feet. It also had grey spots on its body, a set of three claws on its hands, pink antennae, and three back-spikes. Were it not for these dangerous appendages and that evil glint in his seemingly innocent, sparkly sapphire eyes, one might think he was cute and harmless—well, even with them he's still cute, but you would think twice about holding and hugging him. The crowd of Cappies entered "Cuteness Overload", as they sat drooling with wide eyes fixated to his form.

However, the Grand Councilwoman and her associates were not fazed at the least and expressed it with a flat:

"And what… is this…?"

"Experiment 626," Dr. Dedede gladly explained, "he is designed to think as fast as and is as smart as a super-computer, to lift objects three-thousand times his size, and can inhale enemies and copy their abilities." The words rolled so easily off his tongue you could hardly tell he made this pink puffball of cuteness yesterday. "He is also capable of great destruction, as he is programmed to bring cities to their deaths, block off sewer lines, reverse road signs, and steal everyone's left shoe. He is also capable to learn at a great capacity."

Everyone grumbled at this, and, in the midst of all the confusion, the Grand Councilwoman felt someone tug at her dress. She looked down, and saw it was her daughter, who wore a similar white dress, had pale yellow skin, long hair the same color as her skin pulled back into a ponytail by one purple and two orange clasps, and orange shoe-feet.

Her innocent emeralds stared up at her as she said, "I don't think that cute puffball is dangerous. Let's hear it speak, Mama!"

The crowd agreed with the girl's suggestion, and she, being the reasonable lady she was, granted their request.

"Very well," the Grand Councilwoman turned to the pink puffball, who was busy trying to carve a drawing into the force-field with his claw; it wasn't working obviously, and he started slashing at it in pure frustration. "Experiment 626…"

At hearing his name, he stopped what he was doing and stared at her; the icy glare she received, whether intentional or not on the creation's part, was evident she, and many others, weren't going to like what they were going to hear.

But she continued confidently, "…what have you to say to this?"

The creature then gained a savage grin for a split second, and stood in a thinking pose. The crowd edged forward in their seats, awaiting his cute words of wisdom and happiness. He then said something that was totally not cute:

"Meega… nala… queesta poyo~!" and then evilly laughed as all the Cappies fell from their seats, gagging at the very sound of those words.

The Grand Councilwoman's daughter had no idea what the words meant, but was somehow instinctively disgusted and angered by his quip.

Perhaps it was inheritance…

…perhaps it was not.

Dr. Dedede couldn't help cringing and glaring with one sapphire eye at his creation; this was definitely going to soil his reputation, if it wasn't ruined already.

"This is an outrage!" another one of her associates exclaimed, "How could such a pink cute puffball have such a foul mouth? !"

The Experiment seemed to have taken pleasure out of this, as it skipped around its cage chanting "poyo" rather happily. Another uproar, and it was quickly silenced.

"Guards, take Dr. Dedede into custody. This court is hereby adjourned."

The guards disappeared from around her seat, and the large blue penguin's eyes widened.

"W-wait a minute!" he spluttered, "Don't I get a chance to explain myself?"

"You've explained enough, Dr. Dedede—" she was interrupted by another associate of hers.

"Yeah! Besides, we wouldn't want to hear your idiot scientist's mouth any day of the week!"

The Grand Councilwoman rolled her eyes, deeply disgusted by some of her associates' lack of manners, while the large penguin was utterly enraged by their term for him and decided to voice it:

"Idiot Scientist? I prefer the term EVIL GENIUS! !" as he said so, the door was opened and he was carried back to the base to prison.

The lights then shined upon Experiment 626, and he covered his eyes for a moment before he resumed to playfully running around, scrapping the force-field with his claws.

"And what should we do with him?" the one who hasn't spoken the whole time asked.

He had on rather unnecessary black-framed sunglasses with the Roman numeral two on each orange lens, wore a navy blue suit and lavender tie, and black dress shoes. He had short, black hair with green stripes and exceedingly pale skin, and a polite smile seemed forever plastered on his face.

"Ah, Captain Servick, remind me to commend you on your manners," she praised him. "And help the guards take him to the special containment unit. I don't think a regular cell will hold him, and keep him there until I figure out what to do with him."

"Gladly, and with pleasure." he got up, twirling his gun, and then he was gone.

The door was opened, and the Experiment found himself being pulled back into the base on the hovercraft, just as his creator was. He was forming a plan on how to free both himself and Dr. Dedede, but it was scrapped once his sapphires saw he was heading a different direction. The hovercraft took him to a port on the opposite side of the building, where two guards and Captain Servick waited for him, a button ready to press to release him from his temporary prison.

"Get ready," he told the guards, and they stood firm.

"…Poyo…?"

The moment he pressed the button, the guards pulled 626 out of the hovercraft forcefully. Cries of "poyo" echoed throughout the base, as they dragged him across the corridor.

"(No…)" he mentally whimpered, "(not gonna allow them to capture me again. I must escape…)"

He then tried to pull away from the guards; it was working… for a while. He thrashed about, causing the guards a whole lot of inconvenience, but they still dragged him along, his claws creating long, thick ragged lines of destruction across the floor. The pink puff pulled his claws out of the floor and clung to the wall, his sharp, durable nails digging uselessly into it; they still managed to round the corner, albeit a little more slowly than they would've liked. Captain Servick kept an eye on him, rather surprised that the two guards could handle this puffball of great destruction.

"(Perhaps, Dr. Dedede was bluffing after all…)" and then he noticed the huge claw lines in the floor and in the wall, and he sighed, "(Hoo boy, I don't get paid enough for this…)"

He then followed the guards, his stun gun ready to fire in case Experiment 626 managed to wiggle out of their grasp. The guards managed to shackle his arms together, in a fashion similar to the finger trapper, and Captain Servick snapped his fingers once he caught up, as if to say, "I'll take it from here."

The two nodded, dropped the pink puffball as if he were a sack of hot potatoes, and went on their way. 626 landed with a squeak, in a daze, but managed to regain his composure to glare at the young man, complete with a growl. He realized Captain Servick's mistake, and with a smirk, got up and started to run.

"Oh, no, you don't!" his stun gun turned into a rope-gun with the press of a button, and he aimed at him and pulled the trigger.

The rope sought its target, and, once it found it, wrapped itself around the pink puff, who squealed with surprise. The rope then snapped back to the young man, unwrapping itself from around 626 as it did, and the captain caught him as he flew past single-handedly. He chuckled to himself as he stared at the pink puffball, the icy glare he received from those sapphires taken for granted.

"Hey-hey, you _**are**_ cute…!" Captain Servick found himself going into a mild version of the "Cuteness Overload", and he proceeded to rub at its cheek with his finger, "Goochie, goochie-!"

Big mistake, as the pink puff forcefully closed his mouth around his finger, causing him pain.

"GAH! !" he pulled his finger out of its mouth, "You bit me! I can't believe you bit me!"

He was obviously outraged. He tightened his grip around the pink puff, so much so that 626 let out a small "poyo" of pain.

"I'll show you not to mess with Captain Servick! !" the young man arched his arm to throw him against the wall, but he calmed down and lowered his arm, and loosened his grip.

He then glared at the pink puff, a devious smirk on his face, and said, "I know exactly what to do with you now."

The pink creature couldn't help feeling his black heart drop, but didn't let any traces of fear settle upon his face. Instead, he continued to glare at Captain Servick, as he whisked him away to a control panel, pressed a button, and a large hole slowly opened up in the ceiling, allowing a large blue transparent hamster ball to slowly drop down dramatically in front of them. A metallic base came up from under the hamster ball, and held it in place. A robotic hand then came down with a syringe and headed for 626. He bit at it to keep it away, but the robotic hand was smarter, and it pushed the syringe into his side, draining just enough of his purple blood into the container to work the machine. The pink puffball whimpered when it forcefully pulled its needle out, and he growled at it afterwards in contempt.

Captain Servick, in one quick motion, unshackled him and tossed him into the large hamster ball, just as the robotic hand pushed the syringe into a mechanism in its base, and the machine took the sample of blood, now coded to attack only him. The opening at the top of his prison closed, sealing off his only way to escape.

The pink puffball set his now unshackled hands on the side of the hamster ball and growled, "Poyo! ? Poyo poyo, poyo! [You think you can keep me in here? ! I'll be outta here in no time!]"

The young man chuckled, "Just try it." he provoked.

626 raised its claw, ready to slash at the hamster ball, but stopped and stared at Captain Servick.

"(There _**has**_ to be a reason why he's so confident.)" he thought, suddenly suspicious about the whole thing.

Captain Servick, however, kept a firm, confident look, his sunglasses gleaming as he smiled smugly, "(Yes, go ahead and slash at the hamster ball, 626… I dare ya; see what happens…)"

Images flew through his mind, grotesque images of what would happen if he went with the motion; he then took the option that would most likely keep him unharmed, alive even.

"Poyo…" he whimpered, and backed down.

"Hm…" Captain Servick's smug smile warped into a victorious one, "I guess you're not as stupid as I thought you were; Dedede made sure of that."

626 looked up at the mention of his creator, "Poyo? [Huh?]" he then jumped to his feet and made as if he were clenching his fists, "Poyo, poyo-poyo? ! [Where is he? ! Is he safe? !]"

"Oh, he's safe, alright. But I'm not telling you where he is." 626 sagged, and Captain Servick smirked, and then he snapped his fingers, "Guards,"—a pair of guards appeared at his side—"watch this abomination and make sure he doesn't get any ideas. I've got other stuff to do." he then exited the room, and the guards took their stations.

The experiment sighed and sat down in defeat, "Poyo… (Well, at least he's safe… I'll just have to escape on my own. If I even manage to…)"

After about thirty minutes, he was starting to get bored, so, to take his attention off his situation, he took one of his nails and used it to lightly draw circles in the hamster ball, but the hamster ball took this as a sign of escaping, so it charged up electricity and shocked him.

"AHH! Poyo! Poyo!" he begged for it to stop, and, once it did, he panted heavily.

He then glared at it before crossing his arms and pouting, looking rather pitiful. After another thirty minutes passed, he tried tapping his claw against the hamster ball; he smirked once he saw there were no repercussions for doing so, and figured that his nail must not be on its surface long enough for it to register that it was a threat. He tapped against the surface monotonously, allowing a half a second pause between each tap. The two guards found themselves twitching after a while; the noise even bothered the pink extraterrestrial puff.

One couldn't take it anymore and shouted angrily at him, "Keep it quiet over there!"

He grinned, seeing that it annoyed them, and kept doing it, regardless of the sound annoying him as well; as a matter of fact, it was a little more fun now.

"Aw, great!"

The other guard glared at him through his mask, as if to say "You should've kept your mouth shut!" The guard jumped out of his seat, the pink puffball giggling as it knowingly bugged the heck out of them.

He ran over to the control panel and pushed up a lever, "This should shut you up."

626 felt his claw tingle and it wasn't long before a high voltage coursed throughout his small body. He screamed in pain, and he felt his round body pulsate each time he was thrown against the electrifying walls of the hamster ball.

"Poyo! POYOOO! !" he screeched, begging for the guard to stop.

"What's that?" he cupped his hand over his ear, "Oh, you want me to up the voltage?" 626 protested by waving his arms and shaking his head, "Okay!" the guard "obliged."

He yelled even harder and involuntarily started to inhale. The pink puff sucked up the sparks until the hamster ball couldn't produce any more electricity. The guards gasped as they watched him transform: his light pink color faded into a powerful green, a gold crown appeared on his forehead with a turquoise at the crest, and large plumes of yellow-green lightning shot up from his crown. He looked enraged, and his sapphires burned with fury. 626 then proceeded to charge up energy, and it flowed from his crown to his body.

The guards sweat-dropped, and one of them said, "This isn't going to end well."

"Poyooo! Poyo, po**yo**! [Now let's see how _**you**_ like it when you're the ones being electrocuted!]" he shouted, and at that moment they ran, just as he released that energy in a huge electrical wave, and it destroyed everything in the room.

The guards kept running, even stumbling over each other, and the alarms went off, the corridors flashing red and white. Soon, 626 crawled out of the debris, obviously exhausted from his attack. He still kept his new ability, however, and it wasn't long before he realized he had escaped. He panted awhile, a psychopathic grin on his face, before he proceeded to rampage the base, all the while searching for a way to escape the base entirely. In another part of the base, Captain Servick was relaxing in a beach chair, having done his duty thirty minutes earlier.

"Ah, this is the life—" suddenly the alarm blared, and the blue room periodically flashed red.

He jumped out of his chair, "What in the world-? !"

A screen came down from the ceiling, and it turned on, showing 626 in a new form rampaging the building. He groaned, adjusting his glasses, "That pink puff is really starting to get on my nerves…"

Captain Servick then picked up his gun from the table, twirled it, and went on his way. Meanwhile, the experiment was surrounded by guards.

"You can't escape."

"Poyo…" he looked around, "(Okay, probably not my best choice of directions…)"

626 then looked up, and saw a vent; he had just found his way, and smirked. He inhaled a lot of air, and the guards were wondering what he was doing, but before they could figure it out, he expelled the air downwards, pushing himself up towards the vent. The guards then realized and tried to catch him by jumping up, but they all missed by an inch and ended up being a pile on the floor. The green puff giggled, and pointed his hand at the vent and shot green orbs at each corner. He dodged the vent as it came down, but the guards were not as lucky; he giggled again and waved his arm as if to say "Bye bye!"

Right when he found himself inside, he saw Captain Servick run up.

"Where is he?" he heard, but he didn't hear anything else, so he figured the guards must've pointed at the vent.

626 had to hurry; he knew he had some kind of rope-gun thingy, and he surely didn't want to get caught on the receiving end again.

"Are you crazy? ! Who knows what kind of…" he muttered a word, "…he could do inside the ventilation system? !"

He pushed himself up against the wall, and jumped to grab the ledge above. He succeeded, and pulled himself up. The green puff figured Captain Servick said "damage" or "destruction", but as a matter of fact, even _**he**_ wasn't planning on destroying the ventilation system. He was smart enough, and then some, to know that these ducts are fragile, and one mistake, one slip-up, could send him plummeting into either Captain Servick's or the guards' hands below, and he wasn't planning on getting caught by either of them.

But just because it was fragile meant it would be much more fun to destroy!

"(No… escape now, destroy later…)"

…Perhaps…if he destroyed a little…

"(No!)"

…But, that alarm… it was surely annoying the heck out of him, but saying sorry to the pair of guards was definitely not on his "To Do List." He then found some wires at the end of the shaft, and didn't hesitate to ready his claw and cut all of them off. To his relief and pleasure, the alarm stopped, but to his displeasure, the lights were cut off as well. He sighed; he should've thought this through.

He then smirked, "(Wait a minute! With all the lights off, they won't be able to see me, and I have my own light.)"

626 held up his hand, drawing energy from his crown to his finger, and he used it to see. He came to another vent below and spotted Captain Servick and his guards.

"Now what?" the leader asked; he must be responding to the lights going off.

He quickly hid his light before any of them could see.

"H-he cut off the power, Sir…"

There was silence, and then a groan, "I knew putting all the wires in the ventilation system was a bad idea, but does anybody listen to me? Nooo-o."

The green puff silently giggled at their situation before he continued through the ventilation system. There were more wires, but he ignored them after a great deal of inner debate. He sat there for a moment, taking a breather. Just then, he looked up without knowing why, and saw another vent. He smirked, shooting green orbs at the screws before sidestepping the falling vent. Suddenly, all the lights came back on, and that blasted alarm sounded again, taking the poor experiment by surprise.

"AHH! Poyo! Poyo!" he covered his unseen ears, trying desperately to block out the loud noise, his eyes squeezed shut and his "teeth" clenched, (It hurts! !)"

626 was disoriented as he stumbled around; he felt tears, resultant from the pain, stinging his eyes, and, without thinking, he slashed the air. He didn't even know what he was doing, and the green puff stumbled and slashed again, this time taking out the wiring.

"Poyo! Poyo-poyo!"

He slashed uncontrollably, unknowingly destroying the whole wiring panel, sabotaging it so much that it couldn't be fixed again. 626 didn't even know the alarm stopped blaring, at least until he regained control and stopped his pain-induced slashing rampage. He panted, opening his eyes, and let the area come into his vision. He rubbed at his temples, trying to calm his throbbing head, "…Poyo…" and, once he regained his composure, sighed.

"AW, COME ON! !" the green puffball shook in surprise.

No doubt that that was Captain Servick, and 626 smirked before climbing up the opening. He couldn't see a thing in the room, only a slight radius ahead and behind. He decided to remedy that and drew energy from his crown to his finger again, and held it up to see.

"Ahh… wow…"

He was in a room full of police cruisers, and he stood in awe as he looked around. 626 deviously smiled when one of them caught his interest, "(Perfect…)"

Captain Servick, meanwhile, had found a flashlight on his person and he sighed, "Finally…"

One of the guards pulled out a video tracking device, and he paled underneath his mask.

"Uh… sir?"

"Yes…?" he drawled.

"626 is going into the deck!"

"What? ! Come on!" he dragged the guard carrying the tracking device while the others followed, "If we hurry, we might be able to stop him!"

They ran through corridor after blank, white corridor until they got into the hangar, taser guns ready. That's when they noticed him climbing into one of the police cruisers.

"There he is!"

"Get him!"

626 looked behind and noticed the guards and Captain Servick running to the ship.

"Poyo!" he squeaked.

He hurriedly got inside and looked at the controls, and then back at his captors.

"You won't escape, you little abomination!"

The green puffball frantically pressed a green button, and it rolled up the windows just in time for the guards to bump their heads against it. He giggled, and then he pressed another button to open the hangar, revealing a starry, black "sky". 626 pressed a button on the steering wheel and prepared for takeoff. In no time, the police cruiser rose into the air and blasted off, blue fire erupting from the back-turbines. The resultant wind knocked the guards off their feet and back to where Captain Servick stood.

He face-palmed, "…He just did…"

"And with the red one, too…" the guard with the tracking device complained, "You know, that was my favorite police cruiser. And one day, when I get promoted from 'guard' to a Galactic Police Officer, I wanted to get the red one. Now I'll never get the chance…" he choked up.

The Captain sighed, "Don't worry… we'll build another one. But first Experiment 626 should be our only worry as of now."

The guard, after wiping away a tear, nodded. Captain Servick, after watching 626 escape, got an idea:

"Ah! I know what we'll do!" he grabbed the guard with the tracking device, "There's a hidden camera in every police cruiser. We'll use that to see what he's doing." he then pointed to the other two guards, "You two,"—they stiffened up as they awaited his order—"take the police cruisers and go after him. We must not let him escape!"

They obliged, and the leader with the guard in tow ran out of the hangar to the computer room. Meanwhile, 626 was looking back at the base, and he laughed as he turned back to the controls, "(What an easy escape. I barely broke a sweat-)"

Just then, his stolen police cruiser suffered a laser to the side.

"Ah!" he squeaked, before he looked back to see who fired at him.

He growled when he saw the two guards, each in their own cruiser, "(Curse those guards! They just don't know when to quit…!)"

626 pushed a button, and it activated a blaster; he grinned savagely, and maneuvered the blaster towards one, and pressed it again. A plasma beam shot from it, and the guards gasped and dodged it. But that wasn't enough for the green puffball, and he pressed it multiple times while aiming the gun at an abnormally speedy rate. The two blue police cruisers found themselves doing a number of things to avoid the beams, from zigzagging to swerving.

One of the guards had enough, and said, "All right… if that's what you want…"

He pressed a number of buttons, activating the biggest weapon of all: the laser cannon. The puffball looked back and gasped when he saw it, his eyes widening. The guard took careful aim, snickering to himself, and he flipped open the case to a red button, which controlled the laser cannon.

His finger hovered over it, "Bye bye, 626…"

Just then, Captain Servick's voice erupted from the intercom, "What in heaven's name are you doing? !"

The abrupt call caused the guard to flinch, and he answered, "Getting rid of this pesky little puffball…!"

"No," his voice said bluntly, "the Galactic Federation wants him back alive."

"But… he gets on my nerves…!" the guard seethed through his teeth, his finger still hovering over the button.

"I know he does," Captain Servick began, "but… you're just gonna have to deal with it, just as _**I**_ deal with it."

Silence took reign over the conversation, except for the deep, shaky breaths the guard took to calm himself. Just when his leader was about to say something, the guard grudgingly, with a hint of anger, said, "Fine…"

"Good."

The green puffball was surprised; he had no idea what had just happened, but somehow, for some reason, the guard didn't go through with his lethal attack. He figured Captain Servick had something to do with it; probably something about not killing fugitives. 626 looked back and saw that the guard's police cruiser was unarmed. He smirked, and went back to the controls, and right then his sapphires chanced upon a big, red button, and he smirked even more; he was a huge fan of big, red buttons.

Meanwhile, back at the computer room, Captain Servick had managed to get the main computer back online by the use of a battery. The main computer showed 626 slam his fist down onto the big, red button.

His eyes widened beneath his sunglasses, "Oh, no… Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, NO!"

The guard looked at him and sweat-dropped, "He just pressed the big, red button, didn't he?"

The young man sighed, slouched over the computer, "Yes… yes, he did…" he looked at the guard, a worried expression upon his features, "He's activating Hyper Drive…!"

The guard gasped, went over to the intercom system, pulled out the mike, and yelled, "Guards! Stop him!"

Meanwhile, 626 had his flaps for hands on the steering wheel, and a monotone female voice came over the speakers, "System charging."

The green puffball smirked, and looked back to the enemy police cruisers; they were doing exactly what he wanted them to do, and he gained a sinister glint in his sapphire eyes. The guards were oblivious to this, and flew to either side of the red police cruiser. They pressed hard against it, futilely trying to prevent his H-Drive. He cackled, and ignored the computer's warning and the alarm blaring inside of his ship; it was probably something about no guidance or whatever, but he didn't care.

He just wanted to get the heck out of there.

Captain Servick then realized something, and took the intercom system's mike out of the guard's hands and exclaimed, "Get back! Get away from that ship! That's an order! Nothing you can do will stop him!"

"But, sir—!" one of the guards tried to protest.

"That. Is. An. Order!" he iterated, teeth clenched.

The guards exchanged glances, but ultimately decided to follow their captain's command.

"(That's one crazy puffball…)" Captain Servick thought, his fist tightening.

"Navigation failure," the computer went unheeded once again.

626 chuckled, his hand inching toward the lever, and he shot a glare at wherever the voice that dared tell him what to do was coming from.

"Do not engage hyper…" unknowingly, the captain was saying this at the same time.

But it was once again ignored, and the green puffball eagerly pushed up the lever. The ship was then enveloped in a bright light, and it shot off throughout space, the resultant sonic boom destroying and sending the remaining space debris everywhere.

Captain Servick watched this with awestruck disbelief for a while, before he fell to his knees and rubbed at his temples, pitifully muttering, "Get me Galactic Control…"

Meanwhile, standing on the roof of the base was a round and dark blue creature with purple shoe-feet. He wore a round, silver metal mask, curved dark gray pauldrons with gold trim and a blue cape with a slightly high, light green back-collar. His majestic cape flowed with the wind, and his white mitten-clad hands held binoculars up to his eyes, and he watched the whole event.

"Hmm… I knew that this would happen," he stated in a slightly deep and wise tone.

"Knew what would happen, Sir?" a slightly higher yet _**male**_ voice asked, and a pair of feet clanked on the roof, getting louder as they drew closer.

He wasn't the only one standing up there now, as he was joined by two armor-clad soldiers—one was short and stout, wearing large, shiny, dark green shoulder plates and a long, shiny, dark green helmet with red tassels coming out of the tip, a hot pink mouth guard beneath the helmet, white gloves and brown boots, and had a blue body with a grey strap, most likely to hold his armor, across his torso; the other was taller and thinner, wearing shiny, bulky turquoise shoulder plates and a long, turquoise helmet curved downwards with three square holes, and underneath his small v-shaped eyehole was a square hole on each of his cheek guards, and white gloves, and had shoe-feet the same color as his armor, a dark brown body with an H-shaped strap clasped together by a white crescent to secure his armor, and also a grey and gold scabbard hooked on his right side to hold his spear-shaped sword.

The shorter soldier had asked that question, and their leader brought down his binoculars, and he turned to his subordinates, his mysterious, glowing gold eyes peeking out of a single, large v-shaped opening in the mask, and they simply stared into them; he may look menacing, but the two soldiers didn't flinch, for they knew of his true personality.

"626 has escaped," he replied bluntly after a while.

Those three words were enough to shock the two, and the taller exclaimed, "What? !"

"You're not serious," the stout one blurted out, and hesitated to add, "are you?"

The masked puff simply nodded, and the two exchanged fearful yet brave glances; they were appreciative of their helmets hiding their faces.

The two looked back to their leader, "What do we do now, Sir Meta Knight?"

"You two," he stressed, "are not doing anything."

"What? !" the taller one's second outburst of the day.

"But, Sir-!"

"What if you need us? !"

The masked puffball held up a hand, and the two soldiers fell silent immediately; he had expected this. His subordinates were so very loyal to him ever since he had saved them from Wolfwrath, and thus it was so very hard to talk them out of coming along with him on certain occasions when he had to go alone. Although, this time, going alone wasn't by his own choice, but rather it was necessary.

"Do not worry, Sword Knight," he addressed the taller one, "Blade Knight," and the shorter one, "I will be fine. Besides, I need you to hold down the fort here. Madam Memu, the Grand Councilwoman, expects us to be ready, and I need for you two to fill in my position while I am gone." He explained this situation to them in a gentle yet firm voice, the gentleness reassuring them and the firmness ordering them at the same time.

The two thought about this and talked it over, and they then nodded and turned back to their leader:

"All right, we'll do it!" Blade Knight decided, despite his heart screaming at him.

"Yeah, we can do this!" Sword Knight agreed, although his heart was screaming at him as well.

Meta Knight nodded, "Thank you," and ran off, "make me proud, boys!"

"Don't we always?" Sword Knight shouted, the both of them waving.

They both sighed and looked at each other when their master could not be seen anymore.

"This is _**not **_how an adventure is supposed to be," complained Blade Knight.

"It sure isn't," the other of the brotherly pair agreed, "but we've still gotta make Sir Meta Knight proud of us."

"Yes, just like we've always had. Let's get to it!"

They then held hands and ran back inside the base to report to the Grand Councilwoman.

-[XX]-

"He what? !" Madam Memu yelled, taking the kneeling Captain Servick and the guard with the tracking device by surprise.

Her daughter was cowering behind her flowing dress and a boy a little bit younger than she is stood next to her, yellow hair with green streaks covering his eyes; he wore a black tuxedo and had orange shoe-feet. Sword and Blade were peeking in the room and they exchanged glances.

"_Looks like the Grand Councilwoman has already been told_," Blade whispered to his companion.

"_Yeah_…" Sword replied quietly, "_I'm just glad that's not us in there_…!"

Blade nodded and they turned back to the crack in the door.

"I'm sorry, Madam Memu," he apologized, "I've done everything I could to prevent him from escaping, but it was all for naught."

"Everything?" Madam Memu raised an eyebrow.

The Captain flinched, "Er… well, not everything… he **_did_** cut off the power."

"So I've heard and partially seen. Thankfully, this computer," she gestured to a large screen that the others had yet to have seen, "runs on battery power. I am certain you will be able to see where 626 is heading now."

Captain Servick nodded and nudged the guard, and then he realized with an "Oh!"

He walked over to the computer as he pulled a USB cord out of a compartment in the device and plugged it into the port on the computer.

Her daughter exchanged glances with the boy as she whispered, "_I can't believe 626 has escaped_."

"_Yeah_…" the boy shivered, "_what should we do, Sis_?"

"_I say we should warn Sir Meta Knight_."

The boy shook his head, his hair flowing with the motion, yet it never left his eyes, "_Knowing him, he probably already knows_."

She sighed, her emerald eyes turning back to the screen, "_What about Sword and Blade_?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her younger brother shake his head, "_Same reason_."

"_But_… _we've gotta do __**something**_, _Bun_…!" she whispered.

"_Why don't we just wait_…?"

She looked at Bun with shock written all over her face, "_What's going on with you, Bun_? !" she kept her voice low, despite her fresh urge to yell.

He shook his head vigorously, teeth clenched, raising his hands in defense. The large computer screen came on with a loud whirr, and the siblings' attention was torn from their conversation and drawn back to the matter at hand. The screen showed a red, glowing ship-shaped dot, the glow signaling one thing:

"He's still in hyper drive!" Captain Servick voiced.

Bun turned to his sister, "_Uh, Fumu_… what's _a 'hyper drive'_…?"

"_I'll tell ya later_," she waved it off, still looking at the screen.

Bun stared at her for a short minute before he turned back to the screen. For a while, nothing but the reddish dot and the darkness of space was visible on the screen. But then, a big, blue orb with large spots of green and brown and yellow speckled with white scattered over it came into view. With each pulsate of the reddish dot, the orb grew closer.

"_Say_," Sword began in a whisper, "_I know that planet_…!"

Blade turned to him, "_You do_…?"

"_Don't you remember_; _Madam Memu used to send us three there for our vacations_."

"_Oh_, _right_," he smirked shamefully underneath his helmet, "_I wonder if it's still as beautiful as it was when we last visited_."

"_Well, keep wondering_. _Because with our lord gone_, _I don't think we'll be visiting any time soon_."

They lowered their heads in sadness, but they snapped their heads up when someone shouted, "Is that blue color what I think it is? !"

They looked towards the screen and saw that the dot was dangerously close to the blue in the orb.

"It can't be! 626's molecular density is too great to withstand such an obstacle!" Obviously, Fumu has done her research.

"If he hits that," Captain Servick pointed to the blue color of the orb, "he's done for!"

"No…" the Grand Councilwoman found herself saying, "(That blue stuff must be water…)"

The dot beeped and pulsated as it drew closer to the planet's surface, and the people in the room waited with bated breath. Just when they thought it was over for the little experiment, a cluster of brown, green and yellow dots came up on the blue where the dot was heading. As soon as the reddish dot hit its mark, it beeped continuously.

The people in the room let loose their breaths, and Madam Memu crossed her arms, "Huh, I thought so…" she looked down at her daughter, "How much time do we have?"

Fumu pulled out an advanced calculator and began working, muttering to herself as she inputted the numbers.

The Grand Councilwoman then turned to the guard with the tracking device, "Where is this planet? The coordinates?"

He looked at the top left of his device and replied, "Quadrant 17, section 005, area 51."

"Otherwise called, Ee-arth…? Right…?" Madam Memu asked uncertainly.

Sword and Blade tried so hard to stifle their chuckles, and they succeeded.

"(All this time, and she can't even pronounce it right?)" Sword thought.

"(Don't make me laugh.)" Blade smirked.

Fumu then piped up, "I've finished calculating, and it's about three hours and forty-two minutes!"

"Oh," the Grand Councilwoman sighed, "I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this." her daughter looked up at her, her emeralds radiating confusion, "We'll have to gas the planet."

Fumu, Bun, Blade, and Sword gasped, their eyes widening; they weren't expecting _**this**_ reply.

"HOLD UP!" a new, slightly nasally voice interrupted.

Sword and Blade jumped out of the way of the door once they saw who was coming. A lavender snail with a dark green shell and a short, light green mustache and goatee burst his way into the room, not even noticing the two "spies" standing right outside in his rush. He was holding a scroll and wearing the upper part of his tuxedo.

"Hold everything!" the snail slithered as fast as he could to where Captain Servick was standing, and the latter jumped aside, narrowly avoiding him.

Sword and Blade sighed, and the former said, "Come on, we have the coordinates; let's get to a quiet place so we can inform Sir Meta Knight of our findings."

Blade nodded and they ran off quietly.

"Earth," the snail began, unfolding the scroll and turning it around for everyone to see, "is a natural wildlife preserve for mosquitoes," he flipped it around to show a diagram of a mosquito, "which, need I remind you, is an _**endangered**_ species!"

"So," Madam Memu started, "_**you're**_ the expert of this planet?"

"Well," the snail chuckled, blushing a bit, "not exactly. I am Agent Escargon," he then bowed, "at your service."

"Well… could we not simply destroy the planet?" she asked.

Fumu and Bun gasped again as they exchanged glances.

"What? ! NO!" Agent Escargon yelled, "Are you mad, Madam? ! Didn't you hear anything I just said? !" the rest looked at him like he was crazy, and he realized and cleared his throat, chuckling sheepishly, "Erm… I mean, no… the mosquito's food of choice, the, uh, humanoid life forms," he pulled out another scroll and showed it to them, "live there. We are not to disturb them by blowing stuff up or gassing anything."

"Are the humanoid life forms… intelligent?" Madam Memu questioned.

Agent Escargon hesitated, "Uh… not that I know of, but they _**are**_ very delicate." he then began rambling, "As a matter of fact, every time an asteroid hits their planet they have to begin life all over again. Heh, heh… it's quite interesting." and then he randomly pulled out a book with the name "About the Planet Earth for Dummies", "I've been using this to study."

Fumu raised an eyebrow and she looked at Bun, whispering, "_I don't think this information is worth listening to_, _don't you think_?"

"_Yeah_, _I_ _mean what kind of a person would read a book about a planet using the 'for Dummies' book_?" he agreed.

They then turned back with dumbstruck looks.

"Military forces?"

Escargon sighed, shaking his head, "That would not end well, Madam Memu. You see, these humanoid life forms are very simple, so very simple. Landing there would cause mass mayhem and world-wide panic!"

"_Now that part made sense_." Fumu pointed out; Bun nodded.

"_Yeah_, _they'd think we were invaders_," he said, "_or worse_…" he drifted off, leaving Fumu to piece it together.

She gasped in horror once she did.

"Well, what do you suppose we do then, Agent Escargon?" Madam Memu questioned, putting her hands on her hips, "If we are supposed to be so quiet as to ensure a safe capture of 626, what do you propose: an understanding of our fugitive that we do not possess?" She walked closer to the lavender snail, whose forest green eyes studied her, her kids at her heels, "If that is so, who then will you recommend for his…extraction?"

"Uh… I… does he have… a brother?" Agent Escargon asked, much to the dismay of Madam Memu, who rolled her eyes, "A close relative, perhaps?"

-[XX]-

Meanwhile, Sword and Blade ran into a closet, closed the door, and, by using the communication bracelet, contacted Sir Meta Knight.

"Sir, are you there?" Sword asked.

After a while of hearing a loud bang and a familiar voice yelling out in pain, they heard footsteps getting closer; the two exchanged glances.

"Yes…" the voice hissed, and they cringed.

"Sir, are you okay?" Blade inquired.

They heard a slight hesitation before Meta Knight replied, "I'm quite fine, thank you. I just banged my head on the underside of this plane, that's all."

"And what were you doing under there?"

"Tuning the Halberd 2.0." Meta Knight answered matter-of-factly, "I am taking this instead of the original since it is smaller, faster, and even has a cloaking device. Now, why did you interrupt me?"

His voice didn't sound angry, but Sword and Blade still cringed.

"Uh…" Sword stuttered, so Blade piped up, "We found out where 626 was heading."

"The planet Earth."

"…Really? It has been a while since I've last visited. But now is not the time for sightseeing. Earth has many large cities and capitals, the perfect targets for 626's power," he paused to let this set into his subordinates, and they developed uneasy beads of sweat.

"Did you stick around long enough to see exactly where 626 has landed?"

They looked at each other before Blade provided the answer, "Yes, we have, Sir."

Sword then said, "But we can't recollect what the name of the island is."

The scene switched to Meta Knight in a secret hangar where a smaller version of the Halberd was, its underside opened up. He was collecting the parts and the tools he needed to tune the ship.

"An island, huh?" he mused, "That is good. An island does not have large cities where 626 could cause havoc. However…"

"What's the problem?" Blade's voice came over the bracelet.

"Earth has a great deal of islands. Pinpointing exactly which island on which he has landed would prove difficult. Do you remember anything else?" he put down his tools next to the plane, and inspected each one of his parts to see if they were in working order.

"Well… it's located a few miles southwest of the USA." Sword's voice said.

Meta Knight's eyes brightened, "That actually makes my job a whole lot easier."

"Easier how?"

"Do you, Sword and Blade, remember…Hawaii?"

-[XX]-

Madam Memu seemed to float across the floor, her kids at her heels and Agent Escargon trailing behind her, still rambling on about 626's possible relatives. They came to a door, and, after Madam Memu entered a series of numbers she was required to remember since she was a teenager into a keypad next to it, the door opened, revealing prisoners who have violated the rules of the Galactic Federation locked up in what looked like plastic cells. Fumu and Bun clung to their mother's white dress, but Madam Memu didn't mind, since, after all, it was quite scary to see prisoners who seem perfectly capable of knocking out the force field of the jail cell.

Escargon's forest green eyes wandered over to a masked figure in a cell who resembled Sir Meta Knight and almost had the wrong idea before he noticed how tattered his black cape was and that his shoe-feet were red instead of purple, and his spherical body was dark grey instead of ultramarine. His glowing, soulless and glaring—which was one of the two differences between his eyes and Meta Knight's—golden orbs seemed to pierce his soul as he stared, and that really creeped the poor snail out.

The snail backed away as he continued to follow Madam Memu and her kids, "Uh… friendly cousin…?"

His eyes trailed over to the other prisoners, one of which a collection of blobs of darkness, each with an orange eye. They came together and splattered against the force field when he came past, making Agent Escargon jump despite him watching it.

"Uh… a guy with a beard…?" his suggestions were getting desperate now; anything would be necessary to get out of this Prisoner Hold, but Madam Memu wasn't hearing a word; she led them onto an elevator shaft, pressed a button, and let it do the work.

Meanwhile, Dr. Dedede, now in a black-and-white-striped jail-suit with a matching cap, had gotten a hold of the local newspaper, the main title, "Idiot Scientist Failed!" glaring at him. It made him feel sick and frustrated, but, most of all, it made him feel angry. A low growl escaped his throat, and it slowly rose to a roar as he crumpled the newspaper in his hands. He was blinded and deafened with rage, and he ripped the paper to shreds, shouting incoherently. The large penguin then threw the pieces of paper to the ground and stomped on them, growling and snarling with anger.

Madam Memu and her kids arrived at that point, the former watching with a straight face and Fumu and Bun with slightly surprised expressions. Agent Escargon slithered up to them soon after, looking a bit scared when he saw the savage look on the scientist's face.

"…We're not going in _**there**_…?" the snail stammered, "…are we?"

Madam Memu didn't say a word, pressing a button which caused the force field to waver and fade away. They walked into the cell, Agent Escargon a little reluctant, and the two siblings clung to Madam Memu's dress even more. That was when Dr. Dedede noticed and came out of his rage, his heavy stomps slowly coming to a halt. He chuckled sheepishly, almost embarrassed to see the Grand Councilwoman herself before him while he was in such a state.

"So, lemme' guess, 626 got away?" the blue penguin asked, snatching one of the pieces of paper that drifted into the air and fiddling with it.

"It should come of no surprise to you." Madam Memu said.

He chuckled, "Of course it didn't! I'm," he pointed to himself, holding his head up high, closing his eyes, and straightening his shoulders, "his creator!"

"Uh-huh," came her unimpressed reply, "which is why _**you**_ have been appointed to get him back."

There was an uncomfortable silence, as Dedede sorted out his thoughts and what he had just heard.

His eyes flew open and his jaw slightly dropped, his hand still in the same position but utterly losing the arrogance conveyed, "Me?"

Madam Memu simply nodded, and Agent Escargon was trying to save face.

"Why me? Why can't ya get Dark Meta Knight to do it instead?" he asked, resulting in the snail to shudder, losing face completely, "I'm sure he'll comply; I mean, it's a wonder he hasn't even _**tried**_ to escape!"

"Dark Meta Knight is going nowhere." Madam Memu stressed, "He is here because of the imposture of one of my best knights, and for violating nearly all of the rules of the Galactic Federation while living under Sir Meta Knight's persona. I almost had the real one jailed when Sword and Blade—bless those two—found and revealed the true culprit." she explained, "So, here he shall stay, and here shall he remain."

"Besides, no one knows 626 better than you do, Dr. Dedede," added Fumu, trying to soften up the scientist, for she knew he had a rough day.

Dr. Dedede crossed his arms, "Hm…and what's in it for me?"

He knew asking that was a stretch, but Madam Memu paid no mind to it and replied with:

"If you and Agent Escargon successfully capture 626—_**alive**_—and bring him back here, I shall grant you your freedom."

Agent Escargon's head snapped up, "What? I'm going with him?"

The Grand Councilwoman simply raised a hand and waited for the scientist's response.

He nodded, "Very well then, you have my word. So, tell me: on what poor, defenseless planet has my cute, little pink puffball of destruction been…unleashed?" he asked, a devious glint in his sapphires, rubbing his brown-gloved hands together.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Wow... I just learned about the horizontal ruler... Man, am I silly... *shoots self with a play gun***  
><strong>*ahem* Well, the prologue is finally done (after painstakingly looking through to find more mistakes), and I'm very happy about that! ^.^<strong>  
><strong>There's still a whole lot more of this story to do, so sit tight!<strong>  
><strong>Sorry if Sword's and Blade's descriptions were a little long, none of the sites even cared about poor old Sword, so I had to look at his picture and say what I thought he wore. If I got something wrong, please don't hesitate to tell me; I will fix it immediately or a few moments after immediately.<strong>  
><strong>Told ya I would squeeze Sir Meta Knight in here, and the three are not tied to certain parts. =3<strong>  
><strong>And YES, I blessed Customer Service with legs; I'm pretty sure he's grateful for that. XD<strong>  
><strong>Customer Service: Thank you so much!<strong>  
><strong>Me: Oh, it's no problem! *looks around* Hey, what are you doing outside my computer screen? O.O<strong>  
><strong>Customer Service: I just wanted to thank you personally, for giving me these legs.<strong>  
><strong>Me: ^.^; That's great. Now could you please get back in there, you're creating a hole in my story!<strong>  
><strong>Customer Service: Oh no! I'm sorry! *jumps back in computer*<strong>  
><strong>Heh heh, told ya he'd be grateful.<strong>  
><strong>Okay, so chapter one should be uploaded sometime this week; I know I said within the month last time for those of you who read or skimmed, but... well, here we are. I was a little surprised myself when I was almost done with it.<strong>  
><strong>All right, sorry for all my ramblings, I tend to get carried away when I am very excited about something. ^.^;<strong>  
><strong>If you notice any more mistakes, or if I notice them, expect this chapter to be overhauled and... no. It will get fixed IMMEDIATELY! *bangs hand on desk*<strong>  
><strong>So, ta ta! And see ya sometime this week~!<strong>


	3. Chapter 1: The Wish of a Little Girl

**Hello again, fellow readers and perhaps writers. I present to you the first chapter! YAY~!**  
><strong>But first, I'll clear up some things. "(...)" means the speaker is thinking, "[...]" is the translation of whatever the speaker said (note that this won't be in front of every single "poyo" you see), Italicized words encased in quotation marks are for when the speaker is whispering, Italics and Bold used together is for emphasis, and the Italics used by themselves are when people are singing.<strong>

**Now for the disclaimer:**

**I do not own Lilo or Kirby or any of their respective universes, they belong to Disney, and HAL Laboratories and Nintendo respectively; I also don't own anything Sonic the Hedgehog-related.**

**Okay, you got that? All right, let's roll out!**

* * *

><p><strong>Lilo and Kirby<strong>

Chapter One: The Wish of a Little Girl/The Crazy Adoption

On the island on Earth, five women in hula clothes stood in their starting poses, one foot in front of the other.

_Mahalo nuila_

A little girl wearing a yellow and orange striped swimsuit and a blue snorkel had jumped in the ocean. She let the current guide her, tightly holding a peanut butter sandwich, until she saw an orange fish with yellow fins happily swimming toward her.

_Ke Ali iwahine_

She smiled, giving the orange fish the sandwich, and propelled herself using her feet and legs to the surface.

_O Lili ulani_

This girl was brown-skinned, had black eyes and black, long hair. She hurriedly swam to the shore, and when she got there, picked up her dark green duffle bag by the pile of rocks and ran to her class, changing into her hula clothes on the way.

_O ka Wohi ku  
>ka pipio mai o ke anuenue <em>

She ran as lightly and as fast as she could, but the concrete still hurt her bare feet; she paid no mind to it.

_Na waihooluu a halikeole_

Meanwhile, four girls—one of them had orange, shoulder-length hair, thick blue glasses and freckles—in their hula attire waited in the back of the stage, peeking out at a brown-skinned man with a wide girth, black hair in a braided ponytail, black eyes wearing a brown-gold flower necklace and a large, blue cloth tied around his waist.

_E nana na maka  
>i ke ao malama<em>

He saw them and gestured for them to come out on stage.

_Mai Hawaii akea i Kauai…  
>O Kal'kana he inoa<em>

The four followed the motions of the other five women behind them.

_O Ka pua mae ole i ka I'  
>Ka pua maila i ka mauna<br>I ke kuahiwi o Mauna Kea_

_Ke 'mailai i K'lauea  
>M'lamalama i wahinekapu<br>A ka luna o Uw'kahuna_

The teacher then noticed that one of his students was missing, and instantly knew who it was, and face-palmed, "Ay yi yi."

_I ka pala kapu o Ka auea  
>Ea mai ke ali i kia manu<br>Ua wehi I ka hulu o ka mamo  
>Ka pua nani a o Hawai i<em>

The little girl, who was deemed missing, jumped in at this point, picking up her next dance moves from the girls, who were unimpressed; they sighed in disgust.

_O Kal'kana he inoa  
>O Kal'kana he inoa<br>Ka pua mae ole I ka I'_

_Ka pua maila i ka manna  
>I ke kuahiwi o Mauna Kea<br>Ke 'maila i k'lauea…_

She was dancing pretty well, but, unfortunately, everywhere she danced, she flung water everywhere, and the rest of the girls and the women slipped and fell, screaming, messing up the whole rehearsal. The only person who was left standing was the girl who caused the whole mess, and she smiled sheepishly.

The hula teacher came up to her, "Lilo, why are you all wet?"

The girl, now deemed Lilo, replied, "It's sandwich day."

"Sandwich…day?"

"Every Thursday, I take a peanut butter sandwich to Pudge the Fish."

"Pudge… is a fish?" the teacher had heard her talking about Pudge recently, and had thought that it was a regular boy by the conversation with herself, but now he knew the truth.

"But today we were out of peanut butter!" Lilo exclaimed, "So I asked my sister what to give him, but she said tuna! I can't give Pudge _**tuna**_! Do you even know what tuna is?"

This was becoming really awkward for the hula teacher, really fast, and his mouth twitched as he fought the urge to tilt his head to the side, "Uh… fish?"

"Exactly! Fish! Tuna and real-live fish do NOT go well together; it's stinkin' cannibalism!: the little girl shouted, "I'm late 'cause I had to run to the store and buy some peanut butter, since all we had was… was stinkin' _**tuna**_!"

She panted at the end of her rant, brushing her hair away from her face.

"Why is this important to you?"

Lilo replied, "Pudge can control the weather," as if she had been practicing that line since she was born.

There was a short silence, and the girl with orange hair put her hand on her hip, the other was busy wringing out her hair. She then said three words that she would never regret saying, no matter what happened next:

"You're crazy."

Those words made something in Lilo snap, and she felt all the anger toward the orange-haired girl which had been building up ever since she first hurt her feelings burst. She felt her feet speed toward the orange-haired bully, and she heard a scream, although she wasn't sure whether it was her own or the bully's, but at this point she didn't care. Lilo then felt herself being pulled away, and she was freed from the confines of her rage. She woke up to stare into the always critical eyes of one of the bully's posse, a brown-skinned girl with dark brown, wavy, long hair, guarding her, with the other two, a Japanese girl and a blonde, light-skinned, pig-tailed girl standing behind her.

She was now being held by the arms by her hula teacher and had no idea what had transpired a few minutes ago, but she knew it was something she wouldn't normally do. The girl turned around to see if her leader was all right, and the orange-haired girl stared distastefully at her left arm, "I think she bit me."

"Ew…" her posse voiced.

"You know, Lilo," her teacher started off, putting the girl down; she whirled around, "I really think I should call your sister."

Her eyes widened, "But… but I… I can dance! Mr. Puloki, I _**am**_ good," she glanced at the bullies, "It's just… I don't wanna get kicked out. I practiced. I can dance… I practiced…" she slowly hung her head in sadness.

Mr. Puloki stared at her, not sure what to think, and he kneeled, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Look, Lilo…" he waited for her to look up at him before he continued, "Nobody said anything about kicking you out. I just feel the need to call your sister. Now, could you wait outside? We'll try again Sunday."

Lilo nodded, and the teacher stood up and walked to the back of the stage.

"Nanner, nanner, nanner! Wierdlo has to wait!" the red-head and her posse chanted.

The black-haired girl grabbed her duffle bag, and slowly walked out of Hula School, discreetly sending a glare their way.

-[XX]-

A dove was minding its own business, picking at little pieces of grass. Its head jerked up when it heard a sound, and stayed absolutely still. The dove hopped away, crying out, and at that moment, dust flew up from that spot as if something had landed. A whoosh and a thud pierced the air, and a person none other than Sir Meta Knight seemed to appear out of thin air, walking down an invisible incline. His glowing gold orbs surveyed his surroundings, and as soon as he touched the ground the invisible incline went up with a whoosh. It locked on its own, and Sir Meta Knight then wrapped his cape around himself, still looking around.

He was in a secluded, grassy area, and he inwardly smirked; no one would suspect anything here. Just then, he felt light pressure on his head, and he looked up and saw the dove perched there. Its eyes studied him, and it tilted its head. Meta Knight's eyes shone an amused pink; he felt…at peace here. This feeling was one of the main reasons why he, Sword, and Blade always came to Earth to spend their well-earned vacations. The relaxation, the kind of feeling you get when you don't have anything about which to worry. But… he _**did**_ have something about which to worry; his already pink eyes changed a thoughtful green.

He had a job to do, and that was to find Experiment 626. Like he said, he did not come here to sightsee, at least, not this time. The green dissipated from his ambers and he sighed. This would be the first time he had ever ventured here with a duty, but, with at least three hours until 626 actually lands, he had a lot of time on his hands to observe. After all,—how long has it been?—nearly a decade has passed since their last vacation here, and things could've changed in that amount of time. Meta Knight slowly reached up to gingerly pet the dove, and, to his surprise, it let him, cooing comfortably.

He then remembered reading about doves, and one detail that had caught his attention was that "they have the ability to sense good people and evil people, and, if they are evil, the potential to be good." Sir Meta Knight knew that he was not evil; he just looked like he was, so the dove must feel safe around him, for it knew as well. As he stared up at the dove, he felt something inside, and it was like a warmth, not warmth from the fire, but warmth from…an emotion. He couldn't explain it, and he tore his golden gaze away from the white bird, stopped petting it and pulled his cape around him once again. It tilted its head to the other side, cooing in a way as if it were confused and worried.

"Hm… If you are confused, I'm afraid I will not be able to explain it," he gently whispered, assuring the bird of promise and soul-searching.

It cooed once more, before it took flight off of his head, leaving him a large, soft feather to keep. He lightly snatched the feather out of the air and smiled beneath his mask.

"Thank you, He who knows my heart and soul," he murmured, thankful that another person, or in this case, the Lord, knows that he has a good soul and heart, regardless of where he truly came from.

He neatly tucked the feather into one of his pockets inside his cape. Meta Knight then looked around once more before he headed out.

-[XX]-

Lilo sat on the porch of the Hula Class, wearing her regular clothes, which consisted of a red dress with white leaf-shaped spots on it and black sandals. She was just told to wait here for her sister, and so she was. Just then, the red-head and her posse, now wearing their regular clothes, ran out of the school, bounding down the stairs and rejoicing. But Lilo wasn't rejoicing, as she was slouched over with her fist supporting her chin and her elbow on her lap. Her shoulders rose and fell when she sighed, and that's when the teacher came out.

He kneeled and placed a hand on her shoulder, "You okay, Lilo?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

He nodded, "Okay, just keep waiting here for your sister."

She looked at him and gave the slightest of nods, and he got up and reluctantly went back inside. Lilo then overheard the red-head girl and her posse talking about playing with dolls. A part of her wanted to stay on the porch, but the other part wanted to talk to her classmates. It didn't matter to her if they thought she was weird, as she believed there could be good in them. She got up, grabbed her duffle bag, and ran over to them.

"Mertle, Yuki, Elena, my friends!" she called.

The red-head, wearing a green t-shirt that shows her belly-button and blue trousers, turned to her and asked, "What is it, Weirdlo?"

The other girls, Yuki, who wore a green blouse and dark green shorts, Elena, who wore a pink blouse and blue shorts, and Teresa, who wore a violet blouse and dark purple shorts, just stared at Lilo.

"Um… I'm sorry for biting you… and anything else I might've done…" she sincerely said, rubbing the back of her head.

"Apology _**not**_ accepted…!" Mertle said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah!" her posse agreed in unison.

"…Do you wanna play dolls? I overheard you talking about them, and I just thought… maybe we could—?"

"Play dolls? Do you even _**have**_ a doll?"

Lilo took this as a sign of affirmation, and she smirked, "Of course!" she put down her duffle bag, unzipped it, and rummaged through it, pulling out what she was looking for in the end.

The girls gasped and backed away,—it was a green, mutated doll with different buttons for eyes—but she didn't notice, "This is Scrump. I made her myself; her head is a little too big for her body though…" as she explained her doll, the girls inched farther and farther away from her, "…and her left eye had a matching button, but it was ripped off, and so I had…to…" she looked up at that point and drifted off, for she saw that the girls were gone.

Her eyes widened, and she sighed, directing her eyes downward. Suddenly angry, she threw her prized doll to the ground, picked up her duffle bag, and stomped away. Just then, a round figure wrapped in a dark blue cape appeared out of the bushes. He felt his cape touch something, and he looked down and saw a green doll on the ground. His eyes flashed a light yellow of confusion, and he let go of his cape to pick it up. Dust covered it in some spots and he lightly brushed it off. He heard footsteps approaching, and looked up, seeing a young girl in a red dress. Her eyes widened and she gasped, backing away.

Those glowing… gold eyes… they were like daggers, piercing her very heart and soul with fear. This… scary…masked… round… thing just kept staring at her, holding her cherished doll hostage. He then started to walk toward her, and Lilo gasped and continued to back away. Unfortunately, she tripped over her own feet, and fell on her bottom, but she was too frightened to get back up and run. She braced herself, the figure getting ever closer, and she shut her eyes, not wanting to see what would happen to her. But, even when she felt the round creature looming over her, nothing ever did happen, and she opened one eye to see that the masked figure was still staring at her, but with the hand that was holding her doll outstretched toward her.

"(Huh?)" Lilo raised an eyebrow, and took the doll and held it close to her chest, "Uh…thank you…"

The masked round creature nodded, enfolding his cape around himself once again.

"You had dropped it," he calmly started to explain, and the girl was surprised that this guy was soft-spoken. "I was simply returning it to you."

"…I knew I did… I was angry… but I was coming back for it."

"So I've seen…" he replied bluntly; he held out a white-mitten-clad hand for her to take, and, after arguing with herself for a while, she took it and he pulled her onto her feet.

It was strange how she thought this guy was scary and evil before, but now, she felt safe yet awkward around him. It was unexplainable, but there seemed to be a whole lot more to him than his unblinking golden orbs and his rather sinister appearance.

She looked at her doll and sighed; the masked puffball noticed, "Is something wrong?"

Lilo hesitated before she replied, "My friends… they don't wanna play with me…"

"Your… friends…?" he looked towards the sky, his ambers shining a light yellow and a deep green.

"Yeah…" she looked at him and noticed his eyes were two different colors now, "(Hm… that's odd…) I showed them this doll, hoping that I could join in their talk about dolls, but they… you know."

He looked at the doll she had in her hands, studying it, before his now golden eyes met her black ones, "It looks hand-made."

"Uh-huh… I made her myself, but you probably don't care either, do you?" she looked at him critically.

The masked puffball didn't answer, still staring at her unblinkingly.

"Or are you disgusted with me…?"

He looked away and said after a while, "There should be no reason you consider those girls your friends."

"Huh?"

"Friendship does not consist of hatred, disgust, and/or indifference, at least… not the healthy kind," he explained. "Do not try to associate with those who consider you unworthy to even breathe their space."

Lilo pursed her lips, trying to break down his advice, and once she finally did, "But-but they're my only classmates!"

The masked round creature sighed, turning his golden gaze to her again, "Like I said, no reason."

She hung her head, but then she heard him say something she didn't expect: "And, by the way, that doll of yours is quite nice, especially the fact that you made it yourself… Do not disregard your creativity, little girl."

She looked up at him, "Oh, thanks!" she then looked down at her doll, "I've worked on her a long time, and—!" she looked up again, but saw that he was gone, with no trace of him even being next to her.

Lilo sighed and started to question if he was but a figment of her imagination, just something she conjured up herself in an attempt to help herself feel better. She knew nobody in reality would like her stuff, so why, if he _**were**_ real, should his compliment _**not**_ be a pretense? Lilo then shuffled off to her house, keeping her doll close to her heart, but she was being watched by the same masked creature who had comforted her hiding behind a bush, turning out not to be a part of her mind after all. Sir Meta Knight was sort of hurt that she had thought him forbidding, and he sighed, lowering his head a little.

He wouldn't normally feel this way, but he guessed that since she was a little girl… it hurt him more to have a child run away from him than if he or she were an adult. He brushed this off, however, and continued about his way, observing. But then Sir Meta Knight realized something: she was alone. Being a kid, especially female, and being alone was possibly the most vulnerable state you could be on this planet; he's seen news of children being kidnapped and/or killed, and he was _**not**_ happy about that… _**AT ALL**_…

How could he leave her to go home alone?

Thusly, he made haste to go quietly to catch up to her, and to watch over her until she was safe and sound in her house.

He sighed, "(If only the humans were as peaceful as the Cappies… that was perhaps the only problem Earth had…)"

Right at that moment, a slender, tall fair-skinned woman with black hair, wearing a light orange top that showed her stomach, blue-jean shorts, white socks and brown hiking boots ran up the stairs to the Hula School, her brown eyes searching for her younger sister.

"Lilo?" she then groaned, "Why didn't she stay here…? Lilo? !"

She called out for her again, her hands cupped around her mouth. The woman groaned, "Oh, you better be home…!"

She then ran off in the direction of their house. As she ran down the streets of Hawaii, a black, sleek car with heavily-tinted windows almost knocked her down, and she yelled, "Hey! Watch where you're going!" and then kicked the fender of the car, "Stupid-head!"

She ran on, making it up the steep incline, paying no mind to the driver rolling down his window and raising his eyebrow at her. On top of the hill and at the end of a cliff was a yellow-green house with green trim and a pink roof on stilts, a blue Volkswagen parked in the "drive-way". It was half-surrounded by the greenery of the trees, and the other half a green abyss. Meta Knight stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking out over the trees that adorned the chasm; he had decided to stay in case some person decided to break in. Even in your own home, you still aren't safe…

"(That little girl…lived _**here**_?)" he was surprised, "(It _**is**_ beautiful…but…the danger of falling always looms over the inhabitants…)"

He then heard footsteps and panting, and quickly hid behind the Volkswagen. He peeked out, seeing a woman running up the pink road, her teeth clenched, and looking ragged. Her brown eyes glimpsed the Volkswagen, and she went up the stairs, but he didn't think she truly saw him, as the shine in them suggested that she was focused on something else… or rather, some_**one**_ else… He quietly stepped from behind the car and his ambers looked up, flashing a deep, thoughtful green.

"Hm…"

The woman turned the knob of the brown door and pulled, but, much to her dismay and frustration, it didn't open.

_I found a new place to dwell_…

"Wha—? ! Lilo… Lilo, open the door!" she demanded, her hands still on the knob.

"Go away…" came Lilo's reply.

…_You make me feel so lonely, baby_…

She sighed, and let go of the knob, kneeled and poked her head through the doggy door, and saw the young girl lying on the floor of the living room, her record player singing one of her idol's songs.

"Lilo! We don't have the time for this!"

…_I get so lonely_…

The girl turned her head to face her sister, one of the most piteous expressions plastered upon her features, and moaned, "Leave me alone to die."

She sighed, "Lilo, come on—the social worker's gonna be here any minute!"

This went in one ear and out the other, and the girl simply turned up the music, much to the woman's exasperation.

…_You still can find some room  
>for broken-hearted lovers to cry away their gloom<em>

She had an idea, and reached up to unlock the top lock, but noticed something else that added to her frustration: nails, badly-deformed nails, were poorly fixated to the door.

_Don't make me so lonely, baby_

The woman growled loudly and shot a glare at her sister.

_Don't make me so lonely_,  
><em>I get so lonely I could die<em>...

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a hammer lying just inches away—not very smart if you plan on _**keeping**_ your sister out. She reached for it and, using her fingers, pulled it closer.

_The bellhop's tears keep flowing_…

"You are _**so**_ finished when I get in there, Lilo!" she yelled, "You hear me? !"

The young girl started to lip-sync the song from there.

_Well_, _they been so long on Lonely Street  
>they ain't ever gonna look back<em>…

One by one, she pulled out the nails, kind of struggling due to the awkward position, "You know what I'm gonna do to you when I get in there, Lilo? ! I'm gonna stuff you into the blender, push purée, then bake you into a pie and feed it to the social worker!"

She didn't notice footsteps getting closer, and she continued her rant, "And when he says, 'Mmm, this is great, what's your secret?' I'm gonna say—!"

The woman heard a ahem from behind her, and she gasped and abruptly stood, changing her exasperated expression to a forced, big smile and an innocent expression. The source of the sound was a dark-skinned, muscular, bald man wearing a black tuxedo, a golden earring, and very dark sunglasses, carrying a silver, metal case.

"—Love… and nurturing…" she was hiding the hammer behind her back, and threw it away discreetly when she thought he wasn't looking, unknowingly hitting a certain someone on the head with it. "Hi… Um… you must be the, uh…"

"The stupid-head," he finished calmly, a tranquil aura around him even when most people would be offended.

It took awhile for this to set in, and once it did, she gasped, "Oh! I'm _**so**_ sorry for that! But you really _**do**_ need to watch where you're going; Hawaii's streets don't always belong to cars, you know." she chuckled sheepishly.

"…Uh-huh…"

"But anyway, I'm still sorry. If I knew who was driving that car at that time, I wouldn't have…" she drifted off, "I can pay for that."

"It's a rental." he replied bluntly, letting the brown-skinned woman know there was nothing about which to worry. He then asked, "Are you the guardian in question?"

"Well, yes… I'm Nani, Nani Pelekai," she introduced herself, "A pleasure to meet you, Mister…" she tilted her head, outstretching a hand for a handshake.

"Bubbles…" he supplied, lifting his sunglasses a bit, revealing small, black eyes.

"Mr. Bubbles…" Nani tested the name on her tongue, "That's a strange…"

"I know," he cut her off. "Are you going to invite me in, Nani?"

"Oh, yes! Of course! But maybe we could sit out here and talk." Nani suggested, putting away her hand, but Mr. Bubbles just stared at her through his sunglasses, crossing his arms, "O…kay… I guess that's a 'no'…"

…_It's always crowded_…

She put her fingers on her chin before she gestured for him to follow her, "This way."

…_You still can find some room_

She walked across the porch and stepped over the railing, jumping down into the trees.

_For brokenhearted lovers to cry away their gloom_

Mr. Bubbles raised an eyebrow, and he followed her. There was a green door on the back of the house, and Nani pushed through the bushes on the side of the house to get there. She tried the knob, but that was locked too.

_You make me so lonely, baby_…

The social worker was soon next to her and she turned to him, "Wait here."

So he did, and Nani ran along the other side of the house. He heard glass breaking and footsteps stomping, and then a sound as if a record player was stopped abruptly pierced the air, cutting off the song they had heard while they were outside.

"Hey!" a young girl's voice exclaimed.

Click!

A few seconds later, the door opened, revealing a much disheveled Nani, a twig stuck in her hair. She chuckled sheepishly, brushing her hair away from her face, also knocking out the twig, "Come right in. Can we discuss this over lemonade?"

Mr. Bubbles walked in, and Nani closed the door.

"Do you often leave your sister home alone?"

"No. Never." she answered, and then she saw a poorly drawn picture of Lilo lying on a floor and scribbled on it was "ME ALONE" on the refrigerator. She ran in front of him to cover it up. "Well… except for now…" Nani grabbed the picture off the refrigerator as she said so.

"I had to… run to the store…and get some…" her eyes trailed over to the stove, where a boiling pot with black smoke seeping through the top.

"OH!" she rushed over and hurriedly turned it off, waving away the smoke.

"You left the stove on while you were out?" he questioned.

"Yeah, low heat! Mm-hm. Just a simmer," she hastily replied, smelling the "food", "Mmm… it's coming along great." She lifted off the lid and screamed, slamming it back down.

"I found that this morning," a new voice piped up, and Nani turned around, seeing Lilo behind her.

"Lilo! !" she cleared her throat, "There you are," and smiled sweetly, "Honeyface. This is the social worker, Mr. Bubbles."

"Nice to meet you," he greeted, extending a hand for her to shake.

For a vague moment, the young girl was reminded of that strange masked creature she had met a while back. Except this guy was a little less scary.

She studied his outstretched hand and looked up at him, "Your knuckles say 'Cobra'…"

He popped his knuckles and got down on one knee.

"Cobra Bubbles…" she tilted his head as she studied him as well, "You don't look like a social worker…"

"I'm a special classification." he clarified.

An awkward silence reigned before Lilo asked, "Did you ever kill anyone…?"

"We're getting off the subject," he said, keeping a straight face, "Let's talk about you… Are you happy?"

The young girl closed her eyes and smiled widely with no teeth for a moment before she assumed her previous expression, "I'm adjusted. I eat four food groups a day and look both ways before crossing the street and take long naps and get disciplined," she said all in one breath, following Nani's gestures; the latter realized and gasped.

"Disciplined…?" Even the social worker was caught up in the confusion Lilo never meant to craft as he raised an eyebrow; that's three people in a day!

"Yeah," despite Nani's nonverbal protests for her to stop, she continued, "she disciplines me real good. Sometimes five times a day. With bricks."

"No…"

"Bricks…?"

"Uh-huh. In a pillow-case," she added, thinking it would lessen the blow, but the damage was already done.

"Okay!" Nani jumped in, hugging her sister, "That's enough sugar for you. Why don't you run along, you little cutie?"

And Lilo did just that, turning from Mr. Bubbles and walking away, thinking about that masked puffball.

Nani turned to Mr. Bubbles, "And the other social workers thought she was a real scream!" and lightly nudged his side.

Cobra Bubbles, however, wasn't fazed, still keeping an emotionless and serious expression, and Nani uneasily opened the refrigerator, gesturing to lemonade, "Thirsty?"

Cobra Bubbles pushed up his sunglasses, "Let me illuminate to you the precarious situation in which you have found yourself," he closed the door to the yellow refrigerator.

"I am the one they call," he lifted his sunglasses, "when things go… wrong. And things have indeed," his eyes glanced at the pot, "gone wrong."

Lilo then came in carrying four spoons with sad faces reminiscent of her classmates drawn on them, each with their hula gear on. She also carried a jar filled with soapy water and placed them on the island in the kitchen. They watched perplexedly as the girl opened the jar, picked up the spoons and threw them upside down into the jar, screwed the lid back on and shook the jar.

"My fr…er…_**classmates**_," she said, remembering the creature's advice, "need to be punished…"

Mr. Bubbles then walked over, "Call me next time," he reached into his pocket and gave her his card, "you're left here home alone."

She took it, still keeping an angry eye on her voodoo spoons, "Yep."

He then turned to her sister, "In case you're wondering, things did not go well. You have three days," he said, walking to the front door and opening it without a problem, "to change my mind."

He then exited, leaving Nani with Lilo.

Nani then turned to her, allowing her true feelings to show, "Lilo! Why didn't you wait at school?" No answer. "You were supposed to wait there!"

Silence; Lilo turned away.

She grabbed her hand this time, "Do you not understand this situation? Do you want to be taken away?"

The girl slightly pulled away, causing Nani to snap, "Answer me, Lilo!"

"No!" she started to pull away harder now.

"No? Is it no because you don't understand?"

"No!" more sharply said than last time.

"No, what?" Nani inquired, much to both their exasperation.

"NOOOO!" she pulled away and ended up falling on her face.

She mumbled a sentence and Nani tried to listen in, but didn't catch a word; she might've caught "lonely," but that might've been a trick of the ear.

"Ugh," she groaned, "you're such a pain!"

Wrong choice of words for an already ailing girl, and Lilo sprang up to her feet, "Then why don't you sell me and buy a pink, fluffy rabbit instead? !"

"(Pink rabbits don't exist,)" she thought, "Well, maybe I will! At least a rabbit would be a lot less annoying than you! And behave better!"

Lilo was in the hallway that led to her room, and she yelled back, "Go ahead! Then you'll be happy 'cause it'll be smarter than me too!"

"And quieter!"

"You'll like it, 'cause it's stinky, just like you!" Lilo countered, opening her door and heading inside.

"GO TO YOUR ROOM! !" Nani exploded.

"I'm already in my room!" she heard a loud slam and cringed.

Her older sister groaned loudly.

-[XX]-

Meta Knight had been guarding the house ever since that girl came home. Night time had fallen, and his golden orbs scanned the dark, beautiful sky decorated with sparkly stars. The night he favored; he didn't know exactly why, but he was somehow drawn to darkness. Meta Knight heard a sound, seeming as if it came from the house, and decided to investigate. He climbed to the top of the stairs quickly and stealthily, hopped onto the roof, and climbed down a conveniently-placed tree, and stood on one of the branches nearly align but not precisely with the window, looking out at the sky.

"People treat me different…" the little girl's voice said, "They just don't know what to say."

He couldn't help sighing; he knew what it was like to be treated as if you didn't belong, as if you had no place in life. He already knew his place, but he was shunned for what the other soldiers who had seen… them thought he was and still is. Only one person who had seen them as well still befriended him, and he was grateful, very grateful for that.

"(They just don't understand difference…)" his eyes flashed a deep, depressed grey, "(Is it _**that**_ terrible…to be…different…?)"

"Lilo…" he could tell by the tone in the older sister's voice that she understood what's been ailing her, "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier…"

"We're sisters; it's what we do," came the reply he did not really expect.

"I know, but… yelling does not solve the problem, it… it only makes it worse."

"Nani… don't go all 'mom' on me… I like you better as a sister…"

This caught his attention, and he hadn't really thought about it until now, "(Why were their parents not there to greet her when she came home…?)"

Just then, the older sister started to explain as if she read his mind, "You do? But… ever since mom and dad… passed away, I felt I had to, you know, take care of you."

His eyes brightened with realization and he lowered his head. That little girl…reminded him so much of himself when he was but a young Star Warrior, the only difference being that he wasn't really born, and he didn't realize that until he had actually encountered Nightmare for the first time. The whole conversation here made him wish he never heard it, as it made memories he had thought were blocked resurface.

"Does this mean you won't be selling me and buying a pink, fluffy bunny as a replacement?"

He heard a chuckle, "Oh, you…"

There was silence, before the older spoke up, "Okay… how about this? I'll promise not to yell at you, but you have to promise to wait for me on the porch when I tell you." she told her, "I know you thought it was the right thing, to go straight home, but you had me worried."

"…I guess…"

He could tell the woman was about to say something else, because he sensed a slight hesitation, but the whole night was draped in a greenish light before she could.

"Huh?" she voiced her confusion.

He swiftly jumped up the tree and onto the roof, looking up into the sky, knowing that the two would investigate. He saw a green streak of light enter the atmosphere, and instantly knew what it was; for the little girl, however, it was a sight to behold.

"Wow, a shooting star! !" he heard.

Meta Knight's eyes gained a pink shimmer, and he smirked beneath his mask; being blunt half his life, he was nice enough to let the girl believe it was a "shooting star", and besides, he didn't want to make himself known to the other lady…

…Yet.

"_It is time_…" he whispered, before he wrapped his cape fully around himself and vanished.

By that time, Lilo had gotten Nani, with much difficulty, out of her room, and had rushed back to the window, climbing on top of her bed.

She folded her hands and started to invoke the power of the shooting star, "Star light, star bright, a shooting star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight. Please… I'm so lonesome… I need… a friend… someone who understands me… Could you perhaps send me an angel? The nicest angel you have…"

That last sentence seemed to echo throughout the night, and the green "shooting star" continued its journey across the dark, starry void.

-[XX]-

On one of the Hawaiian roads, all was quiet and calm. The path of the "shooting star" suddenly veered and it crash-landed into the concrete, utterly ruining the peace. An alien puffball hopped out of the debris and stood on top of it, still keeping his copy ability, and looked around, smirking.

His eyes looked a sinister, light green as he chuckled, "(I'm free…!)"

626 jumped off the smoldering pile of parts, his eyes returning to their normal, sparkly light sapphire blue. He surveyed his surroundings; he didn't know this place at all. 626 heard a sound on one side of him, and didn't hesitate to shoot a plasma beam at the spot, teeth clenched. He waited for its next move, and he heard it again, this time on the other side, and quickly drew energy from his crown, whirled around and shot another plasma beam at it through his hand. The green puff growled, already getting annoyed, wishing that this attacker would show him- or herself.

He felt something wet on his foot and drew some energy from his crown to his finger and shot toward the sky, "POYO!"

A few seconds later, the clouds let loose the stuff he had been trying to attack, and he raised an eyebrow, "Poyo…poy…? [What is…this…?]"

He continued to wonder about this, studying the clouds and the wet stuff. Soon, he shrugged and wandered along the road, eyeing every tree, every rock and every sliver of grass.

Suddenly, a dove came across his path and he jumped back, ready to draw some more energy from his crown, "Poyo…"

The white bird cawed out frightfully, sensing the evil in the green puff, and hopped away. But then it stopped and turned back to him, tilting its head. It hopped toward him, and 626 growled, backing away.

He stopped and brandished his claws, "Poyo!"

The dove stopped, cooing, before it continued toward him. Once it reached him, despite all of 626's tries to drive it away—even snarling as a last resort—it rubbed its head against him, and 626 froze, his eyes widening.

"…Poyo…?" the green puff was definitely confused now.

It cooed, and 626 couldn't comprehend this gesture, "Poyo…! [Stop…!]" he pushed it away, "Poyo, poyo-poyo? ! [What do you think you're doing? !]"

It tilted its head, wondering why this strange creature rejected it; surely there must be some sort of potential.

626 narrowed his eyes, growling, "(This is getting ridiculous…! And when I think something is ridiculous…)"

He reached into the plumes of green lightning and pulled out an orb, chuckling evilly. The green puff looked at the dove, a wicked glint in his sparkly, light sapphires. The dove trembled and backed away, and just before 626 could harm it, bright lights almost blinded them.

"Poyo!" he cried, covering his eyes with his other stubby hand.

The dove looked and saw the source of the glaring light, cawed frightfully and flew away. 626 uncovered his eyes when they adjusted to the sudden brightness, and saw a huge object blundering toward him. What it was, he didn't know, but he didn't care now either.

He just wanted something to pay.

He threw the glowing, pulsating orb at the object, chuckling sinisterly, and he heard something blow out. The object then started to swerve on the narrow road, trying desperately to regain control.

An uneasy bead of sweat appeared on his forehead as the large object drew closer, and he braced himself, "(Perhaps this wasn't the best idea…)"

And that's when the thing hit him; he felt himself lose his copy ability. 626 yelped in pain as his body endured things that humankind could not survive. The object slowly stopped, and he felt himself slipping away. He vaguely heard a closing door, two closing doors, and footsteps running toward where he was.

"What just happened?"

"I don't know, somethin' blew out one of our tires and after that it seemed like we hit somethin' or other."

The voices were getting quieter and he felt sick.

"I see it… it's trapped in one of the gears."

The next thing they knew, a stubby pink, clawed hand fell into their view and they heard a groan. The two men cringed and moaned, and one of them said, "Ay, we'd better call somebody."

=**The Next Day**=

The sun was shining, the birds were chirping; it was so perfect outside that it didn't even look like it rained. Lilo and Nani were walking down a street to the nearby pet store.

"Lilo, since I've realized how lonely you were," she said, getting in front of the little girl, "I've got a surprise for you."

The little girl looked confused, until Nani stepped out of her view, revealing a beige building.

"We're buying that building…? How am I supposed to talk to it?" she asked, obviously unimpressed.

"Lilo, dearie. This is a pet store."

"Really? !" the little girl's face lifted, "I'm getting a pet? !"

"Yes." Nani nodded, and ushered her to the store, "Now, come on, your new friend awaits you."

They had travelled down the grassy hill to the parking lot, when a figure wrapped in a blue cape stepped in the same spot they were a few moments ago. His glowing, gold eyes followed the two until they vanished inside the beige building. He had received intel late last night that "a pink ball with eyes, arms and red feet was rescued from under a truck." He did not need any more information, however, since he knew that 626 would most likely be mistaken for a stray, which brought him here. Meta Knight, up until now, didn't know that that little girl and her sister were going to the same place as he was.

His eyes turned green, "Hmm…"

-[XX]-

"We want something…durable…" Nani said to the red-haired lady wearing big, blue, square glasses, a green blouse, and blue jeans, "something…that won't die. You know…"

"Like a lobster!" Lilo piped up, "Do we have a lobster door?"

"Lilo, you loco! We are not getting a lobster; there is a dog door, only a dog door!" the older sister shot her idea down, and the girl sagged.

"Actually…" the pet saleswoman spoke up, "if you want a pet that's nearly immortal and very durable, we have these little critters called Chao. And they're _**cute**_, too!"

"…Chao?"

She nodded her head and said, "A guy called Xages sold them to us a while ago. Trust me, you'll both love one."

Lilo had no idea what Chao are, but they sure sounded more interesting than dogs, "Ooh! Nani, can we please…? !"

The older sister raised an inquisitive eyebrow, "Hm… it sounds expensive."

"Oh, but you came at the right time: as of right now, they're _on sale_."

"Really? Well, in that case, how could I say no?"

The girl jumped up and down in celebration, and the lady behind the counter walked to the right and opened the Chao door, "We had to make room for them, and it's not quite finished, so… be careful."

At hearing this, Lilo stopped celebrating and looked on in half-fear, and looked back to her sister, who comforted with:

"Go on, Lilo. It's your choice now."

These words empowered her, and she felt stronger; she could do this, she thought, and made her way to the back of the counter and into the Chao door. Meanwhile, the pink and grey-spotted puffball had escaped from some room and had found himself in some kind of hold for these round animals of some sort. He had this white…tape wrapped around his left arm, feet, and part of his body, but the pain was gone.

It was like that accident never happened.

These… things were just like that dove, but it didn't take much to scare them off.

"(Huh… these things are all ridiculous… It's a wonder I didn't burn this place d—)"

"Hello?" a voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Poy…?" he questioned quietly, "(Wha—? It sounds like…)"

He peeked from behind the stall-wall, and saw a little girl. He pondered about this, and looked up, seeing a sign hanging from the ceiling with "Pet Shop" in red.

"Hello?"

"(A Pet…Shop…? Hm… so it's a place where they sell things like these…to humans…?)" he smirked deviously, "(Heh heh…perfect… those guards might be looking for me, so if I'm going to stay…)"

626 looked at his claws and other abnormalities, and had noticed those blue animals didn't have these, so he retracted his claws, his antennae, his back-spines and made the grey dots all over his body disappear. He inhaled quietly and slipped out of the white "tape", and smirked; he was ready.

The little girl soon found herself staring at a really cute, pink puffball with a smile on its face.

"Uh… hi…?"

The pink puffball then did what she didn't expect it to do: it placed a hand on its chin for a moment and then waved its stubby hand at her, "Hiii!"

"Wha—?" it then ran up and hugged her, "Wow…"

But unknown to her, the pink puffball had an evil grin on its face and was inaudibly laughing. Meanwhile, Nani and the clerk were exchanging a meaningful conversation.

"Why, yes. All of our Chao are adoptable," they then heard footsteps, and the clerk turned her head toward the counter, and her eyes widened. "Except that one! !"

She ran over and snatched him up and took him away; 626 tried so hard not to bite or otherwise make this situation any worse than it is now.

"Poyo…!" he squealed.

"But why not that one?"

"It was hit by a truck last night, and…and it was dead this morning!" she shouted.

"Dead? !" Nani exclaimed and rushed to Lilo and picked her up.

"Aw, but I like this Chao!" Lilo piped up, "C'mhere, girl!"

The pink puffball just stared at her, a little anger settling upon his face, "(Did…did she just call me… a _**girl**_…? !)"

He bit down the urge to growl, and the girl realized, "Uh… sorry… C'mhere, boy!"

"(Now, that's more like it…)" he smirked and made his way toward her, wishing this lady would get off.

He pushed forward, ignoring the clerk's attempts to pull him back and marking them void. Nani backed away as the puffball "chao" came closer, and stepped on the bench, keeping Lilo out of reach.

"Poyo…!" he soon nullified her attempts as well, for he just climbed up her legs and successfully pulled down her arms to get to the little girl, and chirruped happily.

"Can't you get another Chao?" Nani questioned.

"We have other Chao, dear," the clerk smiled, still hanging onto the pink puffball.

The Chao felt awkward in this position, "Poyo…"

"But… this one can talk! Say hello, little guy."

As much as he didn't like being called "little guy", he let this slide and tried to say hello; saying "hi" was nothing to him, but the whole word… "Poy… Hah… hall—"

"Chao can't talk, dear," the saleswoman interrupted, and the pink puffball discreetly shot a glare at her.

He was so close, too…

"Are you sure you want this one?" Nani asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at the pink puffball critically. "I mean, it _**was**_ dead…"

"But if things die, wouldn't they stay that way?" the girl inquired, making the two ponder, "And besides, wasn't that one of the things we wanted in this pet: that it wouldn't die?"

Silence took reign, and the store clerk broke it, "She has a point."

She let go of the Chao and walked over to the counter, and Nani put down her sister, hopped off the bench, and followed suit.

"Uh… okay… do you have a name for it…?" the clerk asked.

"(A…name…?") the pink puffball wondered, "Poyo…?"

The girl turned to him and petted him; 626 didn't understand this motion and froze for a moment.

"I'm calling him…Kirby!" she deemed.

"That's not a name…" the clerk started, but Nani shook her head, "in Iceland. But here it's a good name."

"Then Kirby it is," Lilo stated, smiling; 626, now dubbed Kirby, didn't know what to think, and he stared at her with confusion in his sparkly, sapphire eyes.

"(Kirby…)" he then realized he liked it and jumped in joy, "Poyo! Poyo!"

"(Good… now I just have to keep up the act…)" he thought, "(No matter how distasteful it is to me…)"

Outside the pet store, Meta Knight stood beside a tree, closely staring into the store using the binoculars. He had seen all that occurred and lowered his binoculars; just then, his bracelet went off and he took it off and answered it.

"Yes?"

"Sir!" exclaimed Sword's voice.

"We were getting worried!" Blade shouted, "Why didn't you call us when you landed on Earth?"

He sighed inaudibly; sometimes he thought that his subordinates worried a little _**too**_ much.

"I thought that you would know," he replied, but started to explain anyway. "I did not call you because you might have been busy."

"Oh…Uh…" Blade seemed lost for words, for his reply erased all comebacks he had.

"Well," Sword jumped in, as he knew this situation was becoming increasingly awkward for his shorter "brother", "did you find 626 yet?"

"Indeed I have," he answered, "and it appears that this… little girl has gotten to him first."

"…A little girl?" Blade's voice echoed.

"That doesn't sound good…does it…?"

"I am unsure at the moment, as it is sort of hard to tell," he looked up, his glowing, golden orbs studying the brown building, "but once I get some more information…"

"We'll call ya back, got it!" Sword finished.

"…Sword…" the lightly scolding voice of Blade drawled, "you know our Lordship doesn't like being interrupted…!"

An awkward, ten-second silence later and Sword's voice shouted, "Aw, man! I blew it again!"

A light pink glow danced across Meta Knight's ambers and he chuckled a little, "Do not worry, Sword Knight. You have meant no offense."

"Oh, thank you, Sir!"

Silence… "So… find anything interesting in Hawaii?"

"Hm… so far, nothing has changed," he said. "The island is still as beautiful as it was nearly a decade ago," he felt hope resonate from the bracelet, "but I've only seen one part of it."

"Wow… I can still picture the sky and the nature…" came Blade's voice.

"And if you've only seen one part… amazing…"

Sir Meta Knight smirked, "Remember your jobs."

"Yeah, we know," they said in unison.

The masked, blue puffball brought up his binoculars and saw that that little girl and her sister and 626 were standing near the counter.

-[XX]-

"That'll be two dollars."

"Wow," Nani smiled, pulling out her wallet, "when you said these Chao were on sale, you weren't kidding."

She was about to give the two dollars to the clerk when Lilo exclaimed, "I wanna buy him!" her voice then fell to a whisper, "_Can I borrow two dollars_?"

Nani gave her the two dollars, and that's when the girl realized she was too short and had to hand it back to Nani, who kept a straight face as she took it back and gave it to the clerk. Unknown to them, their "stalker" found this amusing.

-[XX]-

"What's going on now?" questioned Blade's voice.

"They're actually buying him…" Meta Knight murmured.

"Buying him?" Sword repeated incredulously, "Sir…are you for certain?"

"Yes."

He heard gasps, "This is bad, Sir…"

"She doesn't even know what he's capable of."

"Actually… this is a rather good thing."

Silence…

"What…?"

Just then, he heard voices, very familiar voices, and he looked over to his left and saw the large blue penguin and his snail "unwilling" lackey coming.

"_I'll call you back_…" Meta Knight whispered, and despite his subordinates' protests hung up and put his bracelet away.

He swiftly climbed the tree and stayed on the branch with the most leaves.

"_Hurry up, Escargon_…!"

"_I'm trying, Dedede_…" the snail panted out, "_but it's murder to walk all this way_."

"_Ayii_…" he groaned with distaste, and reached out and grabbed Agent Escargon's collar and dragged him behind a bush big enough to hide his girth, "_and you call yourself the speediest snail in all the United Galactic Federation_."

"_I'm not used to this type of ground_," he whined.

"_Well_," Dedede grunted indifferently, "_in case ya haven't heard, my freedom depends on this. I will not waste my time waitin' for slowpokes like you_!"

Agent Escargon gasped, as if his pride had been cut deeply, and frowned, "You take that ba—!"

"_Shush_…!" Dedede hissed while he pulled out his advanced binoculars and focused on the pink puffball.

The snail quieted, but his anger was still bubbling, and his forest green eyes discreetly glared at the large penguin. Dedede saw the clerk hand a piece of paper to the lady, but paid no mind to it.

"_You're all mine_, _you little puffball_," he chuckled quietly.

"_Why are we even whispering anyway_?" Escargon inquired, "_Is his hearing __**that**__ good_?"

Dedede didn't reply, instead narrowing his eyes to show his annoyance. He still focused on 626, who now noticed there was someone behind the bush.

"_I mean_…_can he_—?" Escargon was cut off by the penguin's brown-mitten-clad hand clasping around his skinny neck.

"_Stop_…_talking_…!" Dedede spat out of the side of his mouth, his words like daggers as they portended the "or else"; in this case, he would strangle him.

The snail nodded or, rather, tried to nod, and the penguin let go; Escargon placed his hands on his throat as he quietly regained his breath. Kirby had stepped outside; he still couldn't believe his plan was working. He kept an eye on that bush, though, as he had suspicions about it.

Dedede smirked, "_Heh heh_… _that's it, 626_…" he reached into his robe and got out the plasma cannon set to stun and aimed carefully, "_Stay there_…"

Kirby sensed a whirr, and he turned to the entrance, waving for Lilo, "Poyo! Poyo!"

The little girl shouted, "Coming, I'm coming!" and ran over and hugged him; the puffball smirked deviously.

Escargon had noticed this, and his eyes widened, and Dedede, however, was still willing to shoot. The penguin had already pulled the trigger, and the snail, with a cry, grabbed the cannon's nozzle and pointed it upwards so that the green plasma beam shot towards the sky.

"_What are you doing_…? !" Dedede hissed.

"_What do you think_?"

"_You worry too much_!" he said, "_I won't hit her_!" he aimed again.

"_You're mad_…!" Escargon exclaimed, "_That girl is an important part of the food chain for mosquitoes_."

"Oy…" Dedede sighed, and he found himself staring into a picture presenter.

"_You see_?" he turned the slides for him, and the penguin ended up pushing it away.

"_Fine_…" he put his weapon away, and Escargon smiled, nodding.

"_Good_."

"You know, you're a very bad associate," Dedede stated.

The snail simply crossed his arms, "Well, if that's what you think, it's too bad! I'm only here to make sure _**you**_ don't do anything stupid."

That earned him a fist on the head, and the penguin huffed and went back to puff-watching. Kirby and Lilo had gone back inside, why they were still waiting he was not sure, but he guessed it was to explain the proper ways to take care of a Chao, as they so deemed him. His plan was surely going to work if they had no idea of his true origins, but it seemed that he had already been found out.

Ask that bush out there, it'd know.

As a matter of fact, he'd prove it.

Kirby went up to the window, chuckled a bit, and pulled a face at that bush, sticking out his tongue and pulling the bottom lid of his right eye, rolling his sapphires.

Dedede snapped right then, "Agh!" and threw down his binoculars and ran down the grassy hill. Escargon jumped up and slithered after him, trying to get in front of him to stop him.

"Oh, you lousy—!" he reached into his red lab robe and pulled out a gigantic, wooden mallet, "I'll teach you to respect the Professor!"

626 chuckled at this, unaware of the repercussions, or he knew but just didn't care.

"Dedede, calm down! You can't"—Dedede swatted at him as Escargon neared—"you can't just barge in there like this! You'll get discovered!"

"Does it look like I care? !" he roared.

Escargon noted how close they were to the building, and had to do something. The snail, using every bit of his power, sped up to him, grabbed his arm and pulled him back to a nearby bush, with the large penguin screaming incoherent protests as he was dragged away. Kirby had stepped outside again, pointing at the incline of the hill as they were getting away.

"Poyo! Poyo!" he shouted, pointing frantically at the hill.

Lilo ran over, "What is it, Kirby?"

He growled as he stared intently at the hill. Lilo looked over at the direction indicated, but saw nothing. She raised an eyebrow at the puffball, and the clerk ran out a moment later. Kirby soon noticed they were gone, "Poy…?" and turned to the lady and tugged at her pants legs.

"Poyo, poyo!" he tried to tell her about the two mysterious men, but the clerk wasn't buying it.

Instead she exclaimed, "Bad Chao! Interrupting our talk for nothing!" and squirted water at him. He wasn't expecting this, and he squealed, scrubbing the stuff off of him. Okay… he officially hated this clerk, and his urge to fight back rose.

But if he gave in, that would ruin his chances of masquerading as a Chao, so he settled for the lesser urge to get rid of that white, wet stuff that was used to discipline him. Dedede had his arms crossed, pouting and steaming about 626's disrespect.

"_Can't you see_?" Escargon asked, "_You can't shoot and you cannot, absolutely can__**not**__, be seen_!"

He grumbled, "_None of this would've happened had you stayed quiet like I asked you to_…!"

"_Oh_, _really_?" the snail smirked, "_Well_, _I'm not the one with anger problems_."

The penguin punched for Escargon's head, but the latter ducked in time, and he seethed, "_Shut up_…!"

Meta Knight face-palmed, for he had no other actions or any words to describe that fiasco. It was almost like a ninja-spy shouting out his or her every move, or maybe some scenario even more outrageous. He _**was**_ thankful, however, that Agent Escargon would see to it that Doctor Dedede would not step out of line, even if it meant getting yelled at or hit for it. He sighed quietly, keeping watch on 626—and maybe on Dedede as well— for that little girl's and her sister's sake.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Whoo! Chapter one is done! ! *dances***  
><strong>Okay, this was done extra early, and I am fairly surprised. But this is all for you, fellow readers. ^.^<strong>  
><strong>I enjoyed writing Meta Knight, Dedede and Escargon, and Kirby... well, I enjoyed writing all of this. It's pretty funny, and I actually have some quotes I love in here. Rambling again... I should stop.<strong>  
><strong>This story is still far from being finished, so keep your hats on and enjoy the rest of the ride.<strong>  
><strong>Now, if you are all confused about the meanings of Meta Knight's eye colors, I will list the ones that appear in this chapter here, so that you may refer to it.<strong>  
><strong>Green: deep in thought<strong>  
><strong>Light yellow: confused and<strong>  
><strong>Pink: amused (hey, it rhymed! ^.^)<strong>  
><strong>Okay, Meta Knight's got a soft spot for kids. Tee hee.<br>Kirby acts more like Devil Kirby until a certain point in the story, so enjoy the scenes while you can, or...you can...relive them; either way, I'm (still) happy. *winks***  
><strong>Man, this chapter seemed a whole lot longer on paper (I first write the story using papers and pen, ^.^; so yeah, call me primitive, but I won't really care.)<br>****A****nd I don't own the Chao, (don't you think Kirby looks more like a Chao than anything else?) and let's see if you can spot the company that owns Sonic reference; I think you'll enjoy that. (first one to spot it gets a cookie, a chocolate chip cookie or a nice and warm iced oatmeal cookie!) All right, I'm done; enough rambling, I'm done.**  
><strong>(That blue button down there is your friend! Press it, and see your dreams come true! ^.^)<strong>  
><strong>Ta ta until next time!<strong>


	4. Kirby's Badness Level Family Matters

**A/N: **Okay, like I said I would do, the portion is now uploaded. =3  
>Hopefully I can find the rest of it. =3 <p>

Enjoy, my friends. It's been a long wait and you guys deserve this portion. XD  
>Hopefully it'll be finished, but for now, you guys will have to wait some more. =3 <p>

Alright, I'll stop pestering you and let you read! XD  
>*magic whisks me away*<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Lilo and Kirby<strong>  
>Chapter Two: Kirby's "Badness Level"  Family Matters

Nani exited the pet shop, rolling up the certificate that showed Kirby belonged to her and Lilo waving goodbye to the clerk as she went. Lilo and Kirby waited for her at the bottom of the steps, the latter on the lookout for his captors.

As soon as the elder sister joined them, they all made their way to the town square; Lilo tried to converse with Kirby, but he ignored her, only sparing her subtle glances.

"Now, Lilo," began Nani, bringing all attention to her and pulling out her wallet, "I have to get to work soon, so you'll be responsible for Kirby, okay?"

Lilo nodded, and was handed ten dollars—"Here's some money. Stay safe and—"

"Out of trouble, out of the streets, and in town, I know. I know," Lilo smiled and hugged the pink puffball, who jumped, shivered, and hissed at this sudden action.

"Okay... remember, meet me at 5:00!" Nani hesitated before she ran off in her job's direction.

"You hear that, Kirby?" Lilo nearly shouted in his ear, making him grit his teeth, "we're gonna have loads of fun!"

She then whisked him off to show him around town.

Meanwhile, Professor Dedede and Agent Escargon, after a rather hilarious yet tense incident in the clothing store, where the Hawaiian customers and clerks were too scared to be around or to serve them and thus practically allowed them to exit the store without paying, were now following Lilo and the fugitive 626 in civilian disguises.

Dedede had sacrificed his science robe and cap for a sombrero, and Hawaiian t-shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals.

"'Ey, why do _I _have to wear... ugh, _this_?!"

His assistant, Escargon, however, was forced to wear drab, makeup, and a lady's hat and wig.

"Because you're supposed to be my wife, Escargon!"

The snail almost blew his top, blushing, shocked and his pride deeply hurt, "Gh-WHAAT?!"

"Well, you said it yourself!" Dedede shot back, "We have to blend in!" and what better way to fit in than to pose as a husband and wife?"

"Not like this, though! This is humiliating, not to mention restricting!" Escargon tugged at his slightly tight dark blue dress that somehow was able to fit him; he directed his pleading forest green eyes at the Professor, "Isn't there another way to fit in?!"

The people around them, natives and tourists alike, stared curiously, at them as they each tried to mind their own businesses.

"Eh, hm... actually, there is," the large penguin replied, pulling his sombrero down slightly to cover his face; he could feel the prying eyes on him and his associate, and it didn't feel good.

The snail slithered from his spot beside Dedede and made his way in front of him, "Yeah, and? _and_?"

The penguin stopped, hands on his "hips" as he stared down at Escargon. It seemed forever before he finally said anything, but eventually the words, "This fits you," escaped his beaked lips, and Escargon stood there, fixed and unmoving, his mouth held open in an indescribable emotion.

Professor Dedede knew to keep moving, passing him and shuffling along the pavement. The explosion that followed mere seconds later proved him right...

Meta Knight sat upon a stool nearby and heard Escargon scream incoherence(s) at the retreating large penguin and nearly chuckled and sighed simultaneously at their predicament. He put a gloved palm to his forehead, shaking his head, but snapped up at a familiar voice:

"Meta Knight? is that you?"

The masked puffball turned to face the stand by which he was sitting, and nearly jumped off his stool in shock. An egg-shaped, orange non-Cappy wearing a chef's hat and apron greeted him with a surprised smile on his face, "Oh! it _is_ you! Wow, oh, wow, has it been a while or what?"

"...Chef Kawasaki?" asked Meta Knight with a slight gasp.

Kawasaki laughed, "Yes, indeedy, my friend."

The non-Cappy picked up his cherished iron pan and twirled it. The masked knight stared for a while, unsure of what to make of this, before he managed, "How—?"

"—did I get here?" the chef cut in, his smile growing more friendly as he chuckled, "I was afraid you'd never ask! Want something?"

Meta Knight flushed beneath his mask; you see, Kawasaki wasn't exactly the best of chefs...

Not wanting to seem rude, however, he accepted the offer and picked out something simple from the menu—noodles—and, as Kawasaki prepared the meal, he told his story.

"...I was brought up to court, on the charge that I was the worst chef in the history of chefs," uneasily chuckled Kawasaki as he started to stir the noodles. "My defense was that I'd gotten better, but they didn't want to believe me. So they banished me. Permanently."

Sir Meta Knight nodded, almost amused by how matter-of-factly Kawasaki was in telling the story; he received the noodles and then stared at them.

"They sent me here on a ship, and I've been here ever since, and I've been doing pretty well too!"

"...I see..." Meta Knight muttered, and picked up his fork to stir and poke the noodles, not really willing to eat them.

Chef Kawasaki noticed this, and leaned closer to whisper, "Everyone here likes my cooking."

"...Oh, they do?" the masked puffball looked up at the chef, thankful that his mask hid his face, but his golden eyes shimmered a light yellow color against his will, and he hoped the tall non-Cappy didn't notice.

Chef Kawasaki nodded, letting a small noise of affirmation leak out, and urged Sir Meta Knight through his eyes to at least _try_ the noodles. The masked knight sighed and slightly pulled up his mask; he then swirled the noodles around the fork and unwillingly closed his mouth around it.

His eyes widened beneath his mask as the noodles seemed to dissolve amongst his taste buds, and he savored the taste. Chef Kawasaki's grin grew larger, "I can tell you like it. I told you I've gotten better, Sir!"

"Mm," the Knight twirled up another ball of noodles and scooped it into his mouth, waiting for it to dissolve first before he spoke, "indeed you have."

He was finished in a matter of seconds, and he was very shocked, to say the least; he didn't know he was _that_ hungry.

"(Hm... well, I haven't had any meals since I landed, so that should explain it...)" he thought, pulling his mask back over his mouth after wiping it off with a provided napkin; Chef Kawasaki took the bowl and washed it out.

"Ah! Dedede!" a voice cried—the two turned to face where the snail _still _was, now looking around to try and find his accomplice, "Dedede! wait-wait for me!"

The snail then raced as best as he could in the tight dress in the direction he assumed the large penguin was heading, "Agh! curse this outdated drab!"

Sir Meta Knight took this as his cue to leave, and he reached into his cape for some form of payment, but Kawasaki smiled and said with a wave of his hand, "Nah, keep it. It's on the house!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed the chef, smirking, "You've got things to do—no need to let me hold you back!" he then guffawed, twirling his iron pan once again.

"...Thank you."

Meta Knight then jumped off the stool and hit the ground running to follow them; Chef Kawasaki waved, leaning out of his stand and shouting, "Not a problem! Take care, Sir Meta Knight-o!"

-[XX]-

Kirby glanced around with wonder as he followed Lilo at a walking pace. Several things caught his interest—the several shops open, the lines of rather strange-looking people, the pavement—and he couldn't help but point out these interests verbally.

...Well, as best he could, anyway...

"Poyo!" the pink puffball pointed to the rows of shops on either side of the street, and then at the cars on the paved road, "Poyo!"

Lilo simply glanced at him, "So, where to, now, Kirby?"

Kirby then noticed four girls pedaling down the marbled street and started to race down the sidewalk so that he could cut off the four girls at the crosswalk; Lilo called after him, trying to get him to stop, but Kirby ignored her, so the little girl had to chase after him, shouting, "Nani told us to stay out of the street! Kirby!"

As soon as the pink puffball was in front of the girls, he stopped on a dime, and the familiar redhead on her tricycle and her posse on theirs gawped at the sight and put on their brakes. Mertle stopped just in time, mere inches from Kirby's face, and her posse almost slammed into her too; they each then backed up and off some feet.

"What's the big idea?!" roared the spectacled bully; she then saw Lilo catch up to Kirby and narrowed her eyes, "Oh, it's you."

Lilo directed her eyes from Kirby to the girls on their bikes, and her face almost brightened up.

..._Almost_.

"My classmates!" she exclaimed, and Kirby tilted his head/body(?), staring at them.

"What do _you_ want?" snobbishly inquired Mertle, furrowing her brow.

Lilo sighed, scratching the back of her neck as she remembered her lashing out at the redhead, and decided to apologize for it.

"I'm sorry I bit you, and pulled your hair..."

Kirby, though involved in his own thoughts and actions, was still listening, and raised an eyebrow; though he had no clue what had happened between his owner—he shuddered—and this stranger, he had no idea whatsoever on why Lilo was stringing such words together, or even what it was.

"...and punched you in the face."

Mertle and her posse seemed surprised for a split second, as shown by their eyes widening ever so slightly, almost breaking the cold, hard, mean masks they had crafted almost exclusively for Lilo, but the redhead quickly salvaged her almost lost repute by retorting, "Apology _not_ accepted," with a sneer upturning her nose, and she lightly pressed her foot on the pedal, the girls doing the same behind her, and said, "Now get out of my way before I run you over."

Kirby jumped in front of Lilo, almost snarling at the threat—as much as he wanted to see Lilo get run over, in order for his plan to work she _had_ to stay alive.

"Oh," the girl smiled, as if she just now remembered something, "look," she pointed to Kirby, "I recently bought this chao from the pet store. His name's Kirby!"

Mertle just stared at the pink puffball Chao, while her posse was awed, "Aw... it's so cute..." and they got down from their bikes and went over to him.

"Poyo!" he smiled at the attention he was getting, unsure if what he was feeling was actually from his mask or from him himself.

"Hey! Don't touch it!" yelled Mertle, getting off her tricycle and trying desperately to rein her posse back under her control.

"But why not, Mertle?" Yuki almost pouted, directing her gaze to her controller, her hand just inches away from the puffball's crown, and then stared at Kirby once more, "It's too cute!"

The redhead pursed her lips and furrowed her brow and shot back, "It's already been touched by Lilo!"

It was rather weak, she had to admit, judging by the looks her posse gave her, and Mertle turned her steel gaze back unto Kirby, who had a curious, questioning look on his face, sapphires boring into her, and cooed, "Poyo!"

The two continued staring at each other, and there was not a peep heard from the other girl or the civilians. Mertle found she couldn't stare forever, else she'd be caught up in the Cuteness Overload status like her posse, and she turned her head away, covering her eyes, and muttered, "...Must...not...stare..."

"...Poyo?" Kirby tilted his head once again.

"He then smiled and excitedly waddled toward Mertle, stubby hands stretched out towards her face. The redhead couldn't really see what was going on until she felt warmth pulling on her fingers.

_Very_ strongly.

The other girls watched in shock as Mertle gasped and her eyes widened in shock, and she, with all her strength, resisted the pink puffball's attempts to pull her hands away from her face.

"No! Stop touching me!" she yelled in protest, and mentally mused, "(Why is this so hard?!)"

Mertle backed away, though not as fast as she'd have liked, what with Kirby pulling her back.

"Poyo! Po_yo_!"

Mertle successfully managed to push the puffball away, and rushed to get back onto her bike in an attempt to make a break for it!

But Kirby, after he had quickly gotten over the shock of having had a _human_ _child_ push him away, jumped onto her head shortly after Mertle settled into her tricycle, and the redhead screamed, "Get **_off_**!"

"Poyo!" the pink puffball resisted, a determined, mischievous look on his face as he attempted to pry Mertle's hands off her face.

The natives and tourists watching this take place just stood fixated, not knowing what to do. They even exchanged glances.

Lilo, after having called Kirby to retire from his antics about twenty times, gave up and simply watched the events unfold.

Dr. Dedede, having been among the sidelines for a few minutes and just now joined by Agent Escargon, who stared slack-jawed at the sight, shook his head; and the snail whispered, "What is he _doing_ to that poor girl?!"

Meta Knight hid in a small alleyway and just quietly sighed, a bit bitter that he wasn't able to intervene.

And Mertle's posse... well, I don't know what _their_ excuse was...

Mertle, still struggling with Kirby, glared through the space between her fingers at her posse and snapped, "Well?! what are you gawking at and standing around for? **_Help me_**!"

That's when Yuki, Teresa, and Elena made their move to help, rushing over to Mertle, and tried many things to get Kirby to let go—swatting him off, prying him off, much to Mertle's pain, talking him off, tickling him off, and then jumping for him.

It all failed, of course, and the last attempt resulted in Mertle falling off her bike and almost getting crushed by the weight of her posse and her legs by that of the tricycle.

That epic fail, however, _did_ work in their favor, throwing Kirby out of Mertle's hair and a short distance away, and he bounced twice before he rolled to a stop beside Lilo.

"Kirby, why did you do that?" a familiar voice rang through his ears, but he paid it no mind.

Kirby had that tricycle in his sights now, and assessed it to be the perfect transport around this place, to major cities as well, and he chuckled; while Mertle and her posse were still recovering, he bounced back and raced to the fallen tricycle. The pink puffball picked it up and set it back upright effortlessly, and Mertle felt the weight leave the skin of her legs. Soon, she realized something, and, as Kirby settled into the seat of her tricycle, she shouted, "That's **_my_** tricycle! You thief!"

Kirby only smirked, his stubby hands gripping the handlebars, and, copying the skill of pedaling from what he'd seen that redhead stranger do and recording it into his databanks, started pedaling too; it was as if he could always do that. The pink puffball then threw out his right stubby arm and nabbed Lilo, almost tossing her into the "seat" behind him, and darted throughout Kauai.

Mertle had then recovered, and watched Kirby go with her bike, and she sneered and all but screamed, "My tricycle! **_Lilo_**!" and then threw an epic tantrum.

Dr. Dedede and Agent Escargon then sighed, the latter almost sneering when he said, "Oh, great. Now he's _really_ loose!"

The large penguin scoffed and muttered, "First, you use that girl as a shield, and now this?" under his breath before he announced to the snail, "626's destructive programming is taking effect. He will want to find major cities to utterly destroy!"

"What?!" the cross-dressed Escargon almost screamed his wig and hat off, and was about to slither off after Kirby when he noticed the large penguin wasn't budging, "huh? w-what are we waiting for?"

"No need to fret, Escargon," smiled Dedede, patting the snail's shoulder firmly. He watched the smoke trail stretch farther along the winding street, "Besides, I don't think he'll be able to go any farther..."

His associate stared at the large, disguised penguin, mystified, mouth slightly open, before he then followed Dedede's gaze and set his mouth into a stern line. Meta Knight followed Dr. Dedede's and Agent Escargon's gaze as well, and smirked knowingly; he whispered, "At least 626 will be contained."

Meanwhile, Kirby pedaled as fast as he could with Lilo's excited direction down the path and across Kauai, determined to find a major city he could destroy. He came upon a beach and saw nothing but the rippling waves of a blue sea; Kirby grunted and turned around.

The pink puffball with the little girl as his consort, sped along a different path, once again determined to reach a major city. He, soon enough, saw the path end from a distance and, shocked, hit the brakes _hard_. He soon found himself sideways, stopped just in time, at the edge of a cliff, a few pebbles dropping off into the water.

Lilo and Kirby both uneasily stared down into the deep blue, and the latter sighed both from relief and from disappointment; the former then said, "This is a nice joyride and all, but... don't you think that was a bit _too_ close for comfort?"

Kirby looked back at her, narrowing his eyes, and growled to express his growing annoyance and frustration as well as a sort of reply to Lilo's remark, carefully turning around to set himself back on the path. He then shot back through the town square as he'd done the previous two times, this time spurring a shocked Mertle into a spin and taking another path.

A bit discouraged, but no less determined, he pedaled intensely, hoping beyond hope on behalf of some internal force that he could find a major city—_any_ city! The extraterrestrial puffball again found himself at a beach, and he watched with frustrated confusion the waves of the ocean lap the shoreline, almost trembling.

And then Lilo piped up and said the one thing that set him off—"It must be nice to live on a small island with no large cities..."

"(..._Island_?)" his eyes widened at this discovery, "(No... large cities...? **_Nice_**?!)" and then he spasmed, almost losing his mind; Lilo watched with concern, pursing her lips as she observed his anxiety attack.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Okay... there's the portion of the story I was talking about... I'm leaving it off on there for now until I can find the rest of the documentation (and until I can write the scenes that follow this... =3)... hopefully I won't have to transfer what I wrote manually onto the computer... that would be sad...

So, yeah, here's this portion I completely skipped over when writing this chapter in the first place. DX  
>Hopefully, it will be a sign that this story is not near finished and will be finished in the future. (And it is, my fellow authors and readers! XD)<p>

Just not now.  
>I have the story, <strong>Friendship May Be Magic, but Trust is<strong> **Power**,upon which to focus and write. =3

So, I'll be coming back to this chapter whenever to update it (whenever the muse for this story strikes me again), but don't expect a fast delivery! XD

Adios, my friends, and don't forget to review! =3


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